GRANTMAKING MANIFESTO - Our Community

• 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