Project Streamline proved that relieving the burden on grantees can make more time for mission, and that it’s the responsibility of funders to do that. But Project Streamline focused primarily on efficiencies created through better application and reporting mechanisms, and the ability to streamline has shown up in places far beyond those two areas. In this issue of GMNsight: Advancing Grantmaking, we look at what it takes to build a streamlining culture and how that culture and intention can be used to further the work of the foundation by furthering the work of the nonprofits served.
Our guest co-editor for this issue of is Kris Putnam-Walkerly, a national philanthropy expert and advisor. Author of the Philanthropy411 blog, Kris leads the fight against “delusional altruism,” which occurs when funders, overwhelmed by process, lose sight of their true philanthropic goals.
In terms of technology, the philanthropic sector is stuck in the past. It’s time for the sector to adopt current technologies that facilitate accurate information exchange and save people from unnecessary work.
We see a lot of proposals, ask hard questions, and have high standards. But we try to never make a grantseeker jump through hoops.
For a field that likes to think of itself as “society’s risk capital,” we’re remarkably stodgy about examining how our own self-imposed institutional constraints may be blinding us to historic opportunities or making us too slow to act.
To be streamlining champions, grants management professionals need to have the skills and attributes to take on this kind of complex and sensitive work.
Creating an abundance mentality means realizing that the only thing keeping foundation inefficiencies in place is the foundation itself, and that better alternatives are absolutely within reach.
