GRANTMAKING MANIFESTO - Our Community

GRANTMAKING MANIFESTOAustralian Institute of Grants Management (AIGM)WE BELIEVE:12Grantmaking is an absolutely central element in theAustralian economic systemNot one dollar should be wasted on poorly designed, poorlyarticulated, poorly evaluated, or inefficient grants programsand systems. Grantmakers should maximise resources bysharing lessons, and seeking and learning from lessonsshared by others.Australia needs more and better professional grantmakersThe job of grantmaking should be afforded appropriateprofessional status, training and recompense.6834Grantmakers should listen to the communities they serveGrantmakers should be driven by outcomes, not process.They should trust and respect their grantees and offerprograms, systems and processes appropriate to their needsand capacities.Grantmakers should be efficientWastage is indefensible. Skimping on systems, technologyand professional staff is equally wicked.10125Grantmakers should be ethicalGrantmakers should ensure that the process of grantmakingis fair, unbiased, and transparent.14Grantmaking Manifesto: Australian Institute of Grants Management 5

• Every grant dollar should produce the maximumbenefit for Australian society.Every grant should be both efficient (conductedat the minimum cost and in the minimumtime) and effective (producing socially and/oreconomically valuable outcomes).• Every grant should be based on a coherent andplausible rationale.The grantmaker should always understand –and should always be able to explain – why theyexpect each program/grant to work.• Every grant should be awarded on the basisof clear, transparent, and publicly accessiblecriteria.The public interest should be served, and shouldbe seen to have been served.• Everyone who is eligible to apply for the grantshould be given the opportunity to do so.At a minimum, there should be no restrictions onaccess to information about the grants program;grantmakers should also seek to advertise theirprograms widely among relevant communities.• Grantmakers should be prepared to take risks.Grantmakers should understand, and becomfortable with, the risks they’re taking.• Every grants program should be given anappropriate evaluation.Every grants program, however small, shouldresult in a report that is taken seriously. Largegrant, detailed evaluation; small grant, quickevaluation (or sampling) – but however small (orlarge) the grant, someone should collect enoughevidence to enable a judgement on whether ornot it was a good idea.• Every grants program should result in sharedlearnings.Every grantmaker should be expected to bothdraw on and contribute to open and availablerepositories such as data warehouses orknowledge bases such as Grants ManagementQuarterly.• Grantmakers should share the findings of theirfailures as well as their successes.There’s no such thing as a failure, just lessonsfor others to build on.• Every grant should be an improvement on thelast grant.Grantmakers should never be satisfied withthe status quo: grantmakers should strive forcontinuous improvement.Grantmaking Manifesto: Australian Institute of Grants Management7

WE BELIEVE:2Australia needs moreand better professionalgrantmakers8 Grantmaking Manifesto: Australian Institute of Grants Management

• Grantmaking is an art, a craft, a distinctprofession. It requires a complex set of skills.Grantmaking is not a function that anyone can beexpected to take on as a trivial addition to theircurrent duties.• Grantmakers need to be conscious of theirprofessional status and impact.Grantmakers should demand higher statuswithin their organisations, and an opportunity tocontribute at the policymaking level.• Grantmakers should be held to professionalstandards, and should be given the tools tohold others involved in the process to the samestandards.Grantmakers should have to sign off on agovernance and due process certificate for everygrants program.• Grantmakers should be encouraged andsupported to participate in professionaldevelopment opportunities in grantmaking,including conferences, workshops, shortcourses, certificate courses, and tertiarysector education.Existing grantmaker education programshave demonstrated their value. Grantmakingorganisations need to adjust their trainingbudgets to allow more grantmakers to takeadvantage of such opportunities.• Grantmakers, and their organisations, shouldfollow a recognised code of practice.Codes of practice guide behaviour and help toincrease professionalism. We have includedsome sample codes as appendices.• Grantmakers should have a professional body tofacilitate creative interactions.The Australian Institute of Grants Managementhas assembled a network of grantmakers tobuild the capacity of the profession.• We need to know more about grantmaking.There is a pressing need for more research intohow grantmaking is done, and how grantmakingpractices can be improved.• Grantmaking does not operate in a vacuum.Grantmakers should be conscious of theirresponsibilities to the profession as a whole andto the wider society.Grantmaking Manifesto: Australian Institute of Grants Management9

WE BELIEVE:3Grantmakers should listento the communitiesthey serve10 Grantmaking Manifesto: Australian Institute of Grants Management

WE BELIEVE:4Grantmakers should beefficient12 Grantmaking Manifesto: Australian Institute of Grants Management

WE BELIEVE:5Grantmakers shouldbe ethical14 Grantmaking Manifesto: Australian Institute of Grants Management

• Grantmakers should ensure that the process ofgrantmaking is fair, unbiased, and transparent.Grantmakers should not simply follow the rulesthemselves, they should ensure that the systemas a whole conforms to its stated policies, andthat those policies are transparent.• Grantmakers should have in place recognisedprocedures to manage conflict of interest (andthe appearance of conflict of interest) throughdisclosure of interests and/or withdrawal fromdeliberations.Clear and enforceable systems should bedocumented, publicised, and adhered to.The AIGM’s Grantmaking Toolkit is an exampleof a best practice resource for building orimproving your grants program manual.• Grantmakers should respect confidentialityand privacy.Grantmakers should recognise the creativetension between legitimate interests in bothprivacy and public scrutiny.• Grantmakers should clearly articulate –and live – their values and principles.Rules will never be sufficient by themselvesto ensure optimum outcomes; only anorganisational culture based on sharedvalues and principles can do that.Grantmaking Manifesto: Australian Institute of Grants Management 15

Code Of Practice ForGRANTMAKINGAGENCIES16 Grantmaking Manifesto: Australian Institute of Grants Management

For every grants program,• The program should arise from communityneeds.- The objectives of the program should be basedon continuing consultation with the targetcommunities.- The program should respect the contributionand consider the interests of all stakeholdercommunities.• The program should be properly resourced.- The program should be adequately fundedat a level sufficient to achieve its designatedobjectives.- The program should take full advantage ofcomputerised management systems suchas SmartyGrants, and should have adequatetechnical support.- The program should seek to employstandardised formats for grant submission,monitoring, reporting, and acquittal.• The program should be properly recorded.- All aspects of the justification and rationale ofevery grants program should be articulated,documented, and made publicly available.- Policies and processes covering all aspectsof the grantmaking program should bedocumented and publicised.- The risk profile of the grants program should beanalysed, documented, and reviewed periodically.• The program should be just.- The awarding of grants should be fair and freefrom bias, conflict of interest, or any influenceinconsistent with the stated decision criteria.- Recognised procedures should be in placeto manage conflict of interest (and theappearance of conflict of interest).• The program should be a partnership.- Program funding should cover the full cost ofthe project, including overheads.- Where necessary and possible, the grantmakingagency should provide non-monetary assistanceto the grantee.- Program funding should consider the long-termsustainability of the grantee organisation.• The program should generate knowledge.- The program should be monitored and evaluatedat a level of detail appropriate to the resourcesemployed.- The program evaluation should cover thedegree to which the program has achieved itsstated objectives, any advances achieved in thegrantmaking processes, any other significantgains or detriments of the program, and anyother significant findings emerging in the courseof the evaluation.- Lessons learned by grantees should be collectedand disseminated in an appropriate format to theappropriate audiences.- Evaluations should be honest, direct,and free of bias.- Evaluation outcomes should be made publiclyavailable through appropriate media andopen and available repositories such as datawarehouses or knowledge bases such asGrants Management Quarterly.• The program should be staffed byprofessionals.- Adequately qualified and compensatedprofessional grants program officers shouldbe nominated to be responsible for all aspectsof grantmaking, including policymaking,governance, the application process, thedecision-making process, grant monitoring,and review and evaluation.- The grantmaker/s entrusted with overseeing theprogram should at the conclusion of the processbe required to sign a certificate certifying thatdue process had been observed throughout allaspects of the grants program.- The agency should support adequateprofessional development programs for itsgrants officers.Grantmaking Manifesto: Australian Institute of Grants Management17

Code Of Practice ForPROFESSIONALGRANTMAKERS18 Grantmaking Manifesto: Australian Institute of Grants Management

RESPONSIVENESSA grantmaker shall respect the work and expertiseof their grantees, partners and stakeholders, andshall strive for relationships based on candor,understanding and respect.A grantmaker shall take into account the interestsof the wider community and the grantmakingprofession in designing and executing a grantsprogram.EFFECTIVENESSA grantmaker shall always provide honestand accurate information and advice to theirorganisation.A grantmaker shall, to the maximum extent possible,freely share the learnings from their work with thegrantmaking profession, the not-for-profit sector,and the wider society.OBJECTIVITYA grantmaker shall observe policies to addressconflicts of interest and do all in their power toensure that others do the same.A grantmaker shall ensure that grantee assessmentand selection is based purely on published criteriaand is without personal or institutional bias.A grantmaker shall not intentionally misleadprospective grantees.EFFICIENCYA grantmaker shall continuously seek to improve theperformance of their grantmaking operation basedon previous experience and outside information.A grantmaker shall remember that administration isa cost, not an outcome.A grantmaker shall not place their own interestsabove those of the grants project.Grantmaking Manifesto: Australian Institute of Grants Management 19

The AIGM founding leadership team celebrates the launch of SmartyGrants,the best practice online grants management system. From left:• Charles Gutjahr, Director of Technology Transformation• Kathy Richardson, Director of Knowledge Management• Simon Herd, Director of Grantmaking Reform & Innovation• Kate Caldecott, AIGM Executive Director• Denis Moriarty, Our Community Group Managing Director20 Grantmaking Manifesto: Australian Institute of Grants Management

Australian Institute of Grants Management (AIGM)ABOUT US:The Australian Institute of Grants Management (AIGM)is a best practice network for government and localgovernment grants managers and grantmakers.The AIGM is working to help grantmakers review andimprove their grants programs, and keep abreast ofbest practices both within Australia and internationally.The AIGM is a division on Our Community,a world-leading social enterprise that provides advice,tools and training for Australia’s 600,000 communitygroups and schools, and practical linkages betweenthe community sector and the general public,business and government.As well as overseeing a number of grantmaking affinitygroups, the AIGM’s major offerings include:• SmartyGrants – Australia’s best practice online grantmakingsystem, currently used by more than 50 grantmakers of all typesand sizes across the country.• Grants Management Quarterly (GMQ) – plain languagepublication tracking best practices in grantmaking acrossAustralia and from all over the world.• Grantmaking Toolkit – an all-in-one decision-makingframework, workbook (including policy building templates),and check-up tool designed to walk grantmakers through theprocess of building, reviewing or refreshing a grants program.• Grantmaking Knowledge Bank – searchable, topic-based listingof best practice thinking and case studies.• Best Practice in Grants Management Conference –annual conference for government, philanthropic andcorporate grantmakers, including a half-day masterclassfor grassroots grantmakers.www.grantsmanagement.com.au• Grants in Australia Survey – annual survey of grantseekerstracking the performance of grantmakers throughout Australia.Grantmaking Manifesto: Australian Institute of Grants Management 21

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