Are Foundations Hurting Nonprofit Groups by Requiring Too Much Paperwork?

NEW BOOKS

Drowning in Paperwork, Distracted From Purpose: Challenges and Opportunities in Grant Application and Reporting, studies how grant-reporting requirements affect grant makers and grant seekers. The publication, produced by a coalition of philanthropy associations and funds, argues that as foundations work to increase and evaluate their effectiveness, the documents and information they request from grantees “place a heavy burden on organizations seeking funding and hamper their ability to be efficient with time and ultimately effective in their missions.” Drawing data from hundreds of surveys, interviews, focus groups, and outside research, this report describes the “10 flaws in the system” of grant-application and reporting processes and suggests how to simplify paperwork. The report recommends four principles to guide grant makers: One of them focuses on making grant-reporting requirements proportionate to the amount of the grant, and another emphasizes clarity in the grant-making process. Centralized data repositories, in which information about charities is stored so that they don’t need to resend it to multiple foundations, are discussed, as are the pros and cons of the common grant application.

Publisher: Grants Managers Network, 141 Homestead Avenue, Metairie, La. 70005; (504) 834-9656; fax (504) 837-4274; info@gmnetwork.org; http://www.gmnetwork.org; 43 pages; available free for download on the organization’s Web site.