Our Streamlined Application came out of a need to create a streamlined process for our Defending the Dream Fund. We knew we had to move quickly. We thought we already had a pretty streamlined approach - HSF requests a yearly narrative and proposal required for yearly grant renewals. But when TWI joined the group of funders involved in the Fund, they shared that they don't do a proposal or LOI – and we all really grappled with that idea. So the initial application we developed was a survey with three brief questions. When it came time for us to do follow-up interviews with finalists, we decided we would do something super short — 15-20 minute phone calls — since they are relatively small grants at about $10k each.

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Then we realized, if we can streamline a rapid response grant, why can’t we do it for a regular grant? We reached out to the Whitman Institute specifically because we appreciated a lot about their process and wanted to figure out how to move differently with our own. We’ve learned a number of things and have made a number of changes to our overall RFP process. Now, groups who have been with us three years or longer no longer have to do a proposal; they can submit a recent proposal from another funder. As far as reporting, we ask them to write in bullets: three accomplishments from the past year, and three goals for the coming year. Maybe we’ll get to a place where we don’t ask for anything written, but for now this is working for us. We’ll assess with our grassroots partners to see what they think about it, asking them if it is actually helpful to them.

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We also do small grants for our current partners that are up to $5k for capacity building or strategic opportunities. We used to require reports for those, but changed that to just require a brief "postcard" that they fill out with very basic information..

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It’s important to remember that proposals and reporting shouldn’t be about due diligence; it’s around learning from grassroots partners, rather than them having to prove their worthiness. Literally all we need to know is "did they use the money for what they said they’d do?". We just need some sort of financial certification that the money was used that way.

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Having a streamlined process benefits our grassroots partners (they have the money, time and the space for reflection). If they are not spending an inordinate amount of time writing proposals—they actually have more breathing room to focus on achieving their mission.