Grant Recipient and Grant Application Perceptions Audit

External Audit by nfpSynergy

The Clothworkers’ Foundation responded to the COVID-19 pandemic in two phases. At the start of 2020, The Clothworkers’ Foundation commissioned nfpSynergy to carry out a research project that sought to understand the perceptions of grantees and unsuccessful applicants towards The Foundation.

This research was carried out in two phases. The first phase of the research consisted of a survey of The Clothworkers’ Foundation’s grantees and unsuccessful applicants. For the second phase, nfpSynergy interviewed seven grantees and three unsuccessful applicants to investigate further the experiences and perceptions of applicants to our Open Grants programme.

The first part of the research was planned and carried out just before the announcement of lockdown measures implemented by the UK Government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of these changed circumstances, the second phase (conducted in summer 2020) sought to explore the experiences of grantees and applicants throughout these difficult months, as well as dig to deeper into findings uncovered from the first phase of the project.

Download and read the full nfpSynergy report here (PDF).  

Responding to the Audit Results

We are grateful to the organisations and individuals who freely set aside time to take part in the survey and subsequent interviews. We are also grateful to the work of nfpSynergy, especially for their willingness to adapt the research in response to COVID-19. 

Overall, the survey responses make for positive reading. Our application process is considered by applicants to be quick and easy, but there are clearly areas in which we can improve as a funder. We are already making changes as a result of the findings, and longer-term improvements will be introduced as we use them to inform our grantmaking review later this year.

Below, we’ve published a link to our full response – covering areas such as our application process, our relationship with grantees, applicants’ desire for more feedback, and the impact of our emergency COVID-19 grant programme. 

Download and read our full response here (PDF). 

Next Steps

We will begin our five-year strategic review of our grantmaking later this year (itself delayed because of the pandemic). We are committed to considering the findings of this research in the review, and to improving the design of our funding programmes and our grant-making generally over the next five years.