Good for the Goose, not for the Gander

(Published in Raiser's Ask, The South Asia Fundraising Magazine July 2010)

Different donors have different reasons for giving, and deserve reports customised to their needs.

We human beings are good at showcasing ourselves in different ways. When we meet, for the first time, the parents of the person we love, we try our best to make them see that we’re honest, upright, have decent jobs, warm families, and will keep our partners happy. Bumping into a potential boss at a party before the actual job interview, we floor them with our passion for our work, our track record and belief in hard work. To the investor who has bankrolled our company, our words sound like the sweet ring of the cash register. In short, depending on whom we’re talking to, what our relationship with them is, what they expect of us and how deeply involved they are in our lives, we choose to highlight different aspects of ourselves in order to gain and build trust.

Distinguish between your donors

Why is it, then, that when it comes to donors, we lump them under a ‘Funder’ category and generalise their expectations? Building accountability towards our donors is also about building trust, and how we report on our spending of their funds forms a very significant part of that trust-building exercise.

I have raised funds from many kinds of donors – foundations, family trusts, corporates, individuals who live in India and NRIs. They have given funds to run programmes, underwritten specific projects, added to our corpus and supported fundraising events. In the process of meeting, discussing proposals with or just chatting over coffee with them, I have discovered one thing – each of these donors worries about very different things. Their motivations for giving are different, as are what they look for in an organisation they would like to support and the information they want from us.

Customise your reports

Precisely because each relationship with a funder is unique, building trust with them involves a different set of exercises in reporting every time. It wouldn’t be fair to generalise the expectations even of the various categories (foundations, corporations or individuals). While figuring out the specific needs of the donor is something that we do as we build the relationship, there are certain patterns I have noticed.

Foundations, for one, are keenly interested in the content of the grant. They want facts and figures, and in my opinion, probably understand the language of the development sector the best. They know the field well - therefore, they’re more understanding of challenges and shortcomings.

Corporations, on the other hand, need to understand what kind of mileage they might get from doing their good work. So, they would want to know how you gave the project publicity through media or your own newsletters. A report to a corporate donor would benefit from using less development-sector jargon, more corporate speak, and visible acknowledgement that reflects their brand image.

Individuals, however, prefer a more personal approach to the report. Often, individuals funding a project are also looking at educating themselves in the process. Hence, they would like you to go into interesting details, nuances of the projects and lessons learnt. Human stories work really well here, because the individual donor would love to know how his or her personal involvement has made a difference to someone’s life.

Audited financial data, however, needs to be a part of every report for every type of funder. All donors want you to be transparent about how you have spent their money. They want to see supporting evidence where possible.

Think out of the box

We often think that ‘reporting’ to our donors means producing a written document with required details and sending it to them at mutually-agreed-upon intervals. This, of course, is a necessary formal process. At the same time, I have often seen that informal ways of ‘reporting’ work well with various types of funders.

Phone calls to announce a new milestone crossed in the project, a chat over a drink to discuss a challenge that the project is facing, or even a quick email to say that everything is going just fine, make the funder feel that you consider them more than financial investors in the project. They feel in touch with what’s happening. It builds trust.

PS: Use common sense

Keep in mind, of course, that the approach you take with each funder will depend on where you are on the relationship curve with them. It’s a relationship like any other – you don’t want to scare away a new one by being too earnest, or let boredom creep into an old one!

The 10 Commandments for good report writing

1. State clearly why the funds were given and what they were supposed to achieve with specific reference to deliverables agreed upon.

2. Mention all the terms and conditions laid down when the funds were given.

3. Indicate the period for which you are reporting with dates and whether this is an interim report or final report.

4. Against each of the tasks set, report clearly what you have achieved and how.

5. Mention openly what you have failed to achieve and why. Indicate the specific challenges you have faced.

6. Always give correct and audited facts and figures. Also attach a financial report.

7. Unless given a prescribed format by the donor, use your creativity to make the report interesting with pictures, tables, graphs, story insets, appendices which are clearly marked, media coverage you might have received for your work, testimonials from your beneficiaries, quotes from staff monitoring the work, etc.

8. Check report for all errors in language, grammar, spelling and formatting. Make it easy and pleasurable for the donor to read.

9. Add your future plans at the end. You never know, the donor might be delighted with your report and want to fund you again.

10. At the end, acknowledge people who have helped you, evaluators, volunteers, specific staff members and the donor you are reporting to.