By looking at our own portfolio of grantmaking programs, we have arrived at some general observations and specific lessons-learned that we hope will help grant makers manage their programs more effectively.
BSP's assistance to grantees has sometimes been characterized as "grantmaking with a help button." To varying degrees, BSP program managers have remained involved with grantees throughout their projects, always with the objective of achieving better conservation results. This assistance has taken many shapes, and the degree of staff involvement has varied considerably among BSP projects. Yet across BSP's portfolio of grantmaking initiatives we have found some clear commonalities regarding how these projects should be carried out.
Clarity of selection criteria is requisite. All of BSP's grants programs stressed the importance of developing clear and concise selection criteria that provided additional guidelines so that grantees could put forth the best possible proposal.
Communication is key. Each program emphasized the importance of establishing and maintaining regular communication with grantees before awarding grants, during their tenure, and after their completion to learn of delayed conservation impacts.
Site visits are essential. Most grantees appreciated site visits, whether they were conducted by the grant manager, mentors, fellow staff, or other grantees working within the same portfolio. If site visits were not possible, the grantees greatly valued the extra effort to maintain communication.
Mentoring is a must. Mentoring programs provided mutual benefits to BSP grantees, BSP grant managers, and mentors. Mentors were able to provide added technical advice to grantees, monitor individual projects, and report back to BSP mangers; and in some cases, they developed long-term professional relationships with grantees.
Networking is necessary. Creating networks among grantees whose research interests were similar, who worked in the same area, or whose skills complemented one another proved to be beneficial in developing lasting conservation partnerships. Many grantees felt that the contact with peers that BSP facilitated promoted both conservation results and professional growth.
One of the main goals of this review was to document some of the lessons that we learned so that we could share them with other conservation and development practitioners around the world. We have organized these lessons roughly in chronological order of grantmaking program design, management, and monitoring.
Seeking Appropriate Grantees
Finding grantees appropriate for a specific program takes hard work. Casting the net wide and hoping for the best catch is not necessarily effective. Below are some strategies BSP has used to identify appropriate grantees.
Become familiar with local conditions where the grant program is to take place. The potential grantee community can provide invaluable input about local conditions and about their own aptitudes and accomplishments. Comprehending the cultural, political, and economic circumstances, and knowing about other grantgiving and projects in the area are integral to understanding the appropriateness of proposed grantee activities and keeping flexible about their needs. Engage potential grantees/partners in preliminary dialogue and work with them to develop projects that meet both their needs and program objectives—and consider modifying program objectives on the basis of grantee input.
Use nontraditional media outlets and outreach methods to connect with potential grantees. After developing clear selection criteria and guidelines, think creatively to get the word out. Especially for open competitions, grantors should publicize the request for proposals in as many ways as possible, through USAID mission or other government offices, journals, e-mail listservs, newspapers; magazines; and with contacts at universities, research institutions, and NGOs. Seek prospective grantees through references from present grantees or program partners or at public presentations introducing the program.
Take risks on nascent NGOs and early-career researchers. Building direct relationships with young local and national NGOs and with researchers early in their careers can empower them. Your contribution to their development can enable them to promote community or regional conservation activism, sometimes with positive results for an entire country.
Proposal/Concept Paper Preparation
BSP grant program managers often received badly prepared proposals for work on funding-worthy topics. Sometimes grantees just need the tools to design more effective projects.
Encourage short concept papers before or instead of a full-length proposal. Lengthy proposals do not convey a grantee's intended project if s/he is not well versed in proposal writing. Concept papers are much less burdensome to review. Capturing the essence of a project, they provide the foundation for a back-and-forth process resulting in an appropriate full-length proposal or alternative funding development mechanism. Sometimes a "concept paper" does not even need to be written—it may be the outcome of a collaborative oral discussion or workshop with the funder.
Provide guidance in thinking through linkages between objectives, outcomes, and methods. BSP often found applicants did not directly link activities and methods to project objectives in written proposals, a clue that the project might not achieve its objectives. Specify in the RFP how proposals must link objectives and methods, and give examples. Attention to linkages also deserves time in any interactive project development process. For grantees doing monitoring, understanding the links between objectives and outcomes is also crucial.
Have the home office provide the signature on letters announcing final funding decisions. BSP grant managers recommend that in-country field staff and review committees not be the names associated with final funding decisions—for the sake of day-to-day working relations with the potential grantee community.
Grantee Capacity Strengthening and Grantee/Grantor Interchange
Learning and capacity development can happen serendipitously or by design in any grant program, even one operating with strict budgetary limits, if expectations are consistent with the number of staff and the financial resources that can be devoted to the effort.
Establish a field presence to the extent feasible, and ask probing questions. Field contact, especially at project sites, is invaluable for understanding the changing local context and keeping your program flexible. Field staff can provide capacity strengthening and mentoring. They can help with programming activities, monitoring of progress and outcomes, and assessing and redirecting efforts when necessary. Field staff must be technically competent so that they can ask probing questions about the logic and outcomes of projects, as well as about money matters. For some programs, facilitating links with in-country experts may prove the best way to provide field presence. Even occasional staff or mentor visits can provide grantees with thought-provoking questions, motivation, and guidance.
Be flexible with timelines and sensitive to time constraints. Grantees may encounter unforeseen obstacles, including natural disasters or political or economic instability. Be conscious of changing conditions and allow grantees the time needed to produce worthwhile results and deliverables. Grant amendments and no-cost extensions can be useful tools for adapting timelines and budget allocations to changing internal and external conditions. Periodic work plan reviews, monitoring of outcomes, and grantee reports, especially those focused on exceptional achievements and goals not achieved, can give field staff clues about any outstanding issues before they become too big to resolve.
Promote partnership arrangements between grantor and grantees. Especially with longer-term grant programs, partnership can be key to effective grantor/grantee relationships. Sharing a clearly enunciated vision for program objectives and approaches and creating trust are crucial to establishing effective partnerships.
Provide training and workshops based on grantee needs. Analyze grantees' individual and common needs, or facilitate needs self-assessments, then invest in training to address them. Consider hiring contractors or grantee partners with specialized expertise—individual counseling in proposal writing and workshops on project and organizational management are usually sought. Capacity strengthening in financial management is also crucial, since money matters are often grantor/grantee sticking points. Such assistance will benefit the grantee institution well after the grant is completed.
Facilitate the involvement of national and international grantees involvement with local participants. When giving grants to a national or international organization, encourage that organization to bring community members, local grantees, and existing local NGOs into the project whenever appropriate. If possible, embed underwriting for the transaction costs of local capacity development into the grant.
Grantee Networking and Presentation of Results
Many of our grantees said the most useful and lasting assistance BSP provided was the opportunity to network with peers. Grantgivers can facilitate coalitions and alliances that will outlive their programs.
Facilitate creation of grantee networks within the program portfolio. Providing grantees with opportunities to network about related work can promote technical assistance—and inspiration—across the portfolio. Circulating grantee technical reports facilitates project exchange visits. Sponsor the attendance of groups of grantees at program-run or outside conferences, workshops, or symposia. Systematically facilitating more formal networking is also important, especially for longer-term programs. Enable formal sharing of resources by providing subgrants through one umbrella grant. Facilitate portfolio-wide strategic planning forums, or fund "learning networks" focused on a single purpose, such as community organizing.
Facilitate grantee opportunities to showcase and disseminate results. Sharing results at conferences, workshops, symposia, and presentations to local communities allows grantees to gain feedback. Dissemination and feedback also happen during field exercises, shared trainings, site visits, and apprenticeships. These experiences help grantees find how best to articulate their work to an expert or lay audience, both necessary conservation skills.
Direct grantees to relevant publishing venues and provide communications training. Grantees may not be aware of the range of opportunities for publishing results. Distribute a current list of journals and other media outlets appropriate for grantee results publication. If your program has sufficient resources, produce or underwrite a workshop proceedings or other program-based publication. Sponsor writing workshops, training in strategic communications planning, training in using media for advocacy, and packaging information for specific audiences, especially decision makers and local communities.
Recruit volunteer mentors and established local NGOs to provide technical assistance. Linking grantees to professionals acting as volunteer mentors can be a cost-effective way to provide specialized technical assistance, and it may lead to lasting relationships. Well-established local NGOs, potentially program grantees, may provide valuable mentoring to younger NGO grantees.
Monitoring and Evaluation
Even if outcome monitoring and evaluation are not part of the grant, monitoring skills will prove useful throughout a conservation career. For programs without monitoring and evaluation, such as our applied research grant programs, keeping in touch with former grantees often provides informal updates about projects' conservation outcomes.
Introduce monitoring and evaluation into the project planning process. Effective monitoring and evaluation approaches and indicators need to be built into project conception and design so that they suit the program both logically and logistically. Outcome monitoring and evaluation may represent new concepts for a grantee. It can take time to demonstrate why monitoring and evaluation matter for conservation projects. Help grantees identify who will collect data, when it should be collected, and how it should be reported.
Provide guidelines, assistance, and rationale for baseline data collection. Collecting baseline data is crucial—it provides something to compare to later results. Because the initial period of a grant can be a tough time to get monitoring under way, assist grantees in developing indicators and help them collect baseline data. Guidelines and worksheets help with instituting effective monitoring practices.
Facilitate grantee selection of simple, measurable, and useful indicators. For best results with project data monitoring and collection, help grantees choose manageable, easily understood project data indicators. Working with data whose value and relevance they understand, grantees will overcome the dread of monitoring and evaluation and become prepared to introduce new participants to data collection. They will be able to better use the information in promoting project follow-ups and share results and improve their own accountability with client communities.