As a grantmaker, questions are your instruments. They enable you to collect data, assess wants, measure outcomes, and construct relationships together with your grantees. However are you asking the suitable questions? And are you asking them in the suitable manner?
On this weblog publish, we’ll share some insights and greatest practices from our current webinar, Change Up Your Questions: Exploring and Shaping What You Ask Grantees and How You Ask Them, the place Marshall Ginn of Capital Philanthropy mentioned tips on how to consider and enhance your utility questions. We may even provide you with seven inquiries to ask your self about your questions, to ensure they’re related, clear, respectful, and helpful.
Why Change Up Your Questions?
Altering up your questions isn’t just about making beauty tweaks or updates. It’s about ensuring that your questions align together with your organizational values and your targets for the grantmaking program. It’s additionally about ensuring that your questions mirror the present state of your group and the sector, and that they respect the variety and experience of your candidates.
Reviewing and amending your questions also can enable you to get higher and extra constant solutions, which may make your assessment course of simpler and simpler. By being clear about what you’re on the lookout for and why, you’ll be able to keep away from confusion, ambiguity, and guesswork. You can even keep away from asking for data that you simply don’t want or use, which may save time and assets for each you and your grantees.
How you can Change Up Your Questions
Altering up your questions can imply various things, relying in your context and desires. Listed here are some examples of what you are able to do to alter up your questions:
- Add parts or dimensions: make clear, encourage extra exact responses, or ask for extra particulars
- Make small adjustments: tweak the language or edit inquiries to be less complicated, shorter, or extra particular
- Rewrite the entire thing: if a query feels outdated, irrelevant, or inconsistent, rewrite it to match your present priorities and expectations
- Take issues out: if a query isn’t important or doesn’t assist you decide, take away it from the appliance
- Transfer issues round: if a query is healthier suited to a distinct stage of the method, resembling a follow-up interview or a post-award communication, transfer it to that stage.
For some adjustments, you could want to speak them to your group and clarify the rationale behind them. You can even solicit suggestions out of your grantees and your reviewers to see how any of the adjustments are working and what else will be improved.
What To Ask as You Evaluate Your Questions
That can assist you consider and enhance your utility, listed below are seven inquiries to ask your self as you assessment every query. These questions are primarily based on the framework Marshall shared within the webinar, which you need to use as a information on your personal assessment course of.
- Does this query mirror the mission of my group? Be sure that your query is constant together with your values and your imaginative and prescient. This can be the primary main interplay that your applicant has together with your group, so that you wish to make impression and convey what you stand for.
- How will I take advantage of this data? Be clear concerning the objective and the worth of every query. For those who don’t have reply for the way you’ll use the knowledge, you could not have to ask the query.
- Is that this query related? Be sure that your query displays the present wants and realities of your group and the sector. In case your query is outdated, inaccurate, or may very well be perceived as insensitive, you could want to alter it or take away it.
- Can this query be interpreted another way? Keep away from utilizing regionalisms, jargon, or advanced wording that may hinder understanding. Take into account how totally different individuals with totally different backgrounds and experiences might interpret your query and attempt to make it as clear and inclusive as doable.
- What am I on the lookout for with this query? Be particular about what sort of reply you expect and what standards you’ll use to judge it. If you need numbers, ask for numbers. If you need examples, ask for examples. Present an outline or greatest practices as a second half to the query, if wanted.
- Can this query be simplified? Search for methods to simplify your language and your construction to make your query simpler to learn and reply. Use normal writing greatest practices, resembling brief sentences and lively voice. Break down advanced or multi-part questions into smaller and less complicated ones. And once more, be conscious of jargon or extremely technical phrases.
- Would this query be higher requested in a follow-up interview or post-award communication? Take into account the timing and the context of your query. Some questions could also be extra acceptable or efficient at a later stage of the method, when you’ve got extra rapport and belief together with your grantees. Some questions may additionally be extra appropriate for a dialog than a written response.
Making a Significant and Measured Software
Questions are highly effective instruments for grantmakers, however they must be used properly and nicely. By asking your self these seven questions on your questions, you’ll be able to be sure that your utility is aligned together with your values, targets, and impression. You can even make your utility course of extra environment friendly, respectful, and significant for each you and your grantees.
Are you on the lookout for methods to replace your utility course of? Try our information on tips on how to handle your utility pipeline, the place you will see extra suggestions and greatest practices on tips on how to design and optimize your utility course of.
