Saying Yes/Saying No

MANAGING EXPECTATIONS: SITE VISITS

Are grant seekers reading too much into your site visits? Should you schedule fewer visits — or make them only to "sure thing" groups — thus perpetuating a misperception? Here experienced grant makers share advice on how they recognize factors that influence grant seeker expectations — and how hey avoid needlessly raising hopes. For grant seekers, a site visit often signals — whatever the real facts — that a foundation is virtually certain to make a grant. While you’re helping your foundation arrive at a decision, and preparing to give it, potential grantees are waiting hopefully to hear the word yes.

Some grant makers, having learned about this dynamic the hard way, limit site visits to avoid raising hopes. They make visits only after a grant is already made, or when there is a high chance a grant will follow. (This, of course, reinforces grant seekers’ conclusions that site visits are reliable predictors of grant approvals.)

Other grant makers, aware that they might give up important learning opportunities simply to avoid tricky interpersonal dynamics, forge ahead with site visits anyway. And some grant makers seek a middle course — between a total ban on site visits and liberal site visiting that leaves a trail of crushed hopes. They control expectations during visits by recognizing the factors that influence grant seeker expectations.

If you know how your institution’s approach or your personal style during site visits might be needlessly raising hopes, you can better manage expectations. Contributors to the GrantCraft guide, Saying Yes / Saying No to Applicants, offer these observations on the topic:

• The normal etiquette of visiting can often leave grant seekers even more hopeful. A visiting grant maker, out of courtesy or genuine appreciation of the organization, can raise expectations further just by making an approving comment.
• One grant maker has developed her own protocol: “During site visits, I’m aware of myself, my temperament, what I say, and how I say it. I maintain an awareness of my vocabulary. The more time I spend, the higher I feel their expectations will be”
• Another grant maker has developed a simple test to check how her interactions with grant seekers might be raising expectations inappropriately: “I always ask, ‘What is my goal in this situation? Why am I asking a grant seeker for ideas about the field? Why am I making this site visit?’ If the goals seem sensible, I go out of my way to state them before I ask anything from a grant seeker. If I’m uncertain about the goals, I’ll know that the grant seeker probably will be as well, and that’s when expectations get raised too high.”
• Candidly disclosing doubts is advised by an experienced grant maker who makes frequent site visits: “If I know I am going to recommend a turndown, I often tell them this toward the end of the site visit. I say something like, ‘I’m willing to keep trying, but you really have to decide whether you want to keep working on this.’ It takes a lot of courage to say it, but I think taking the risk is helpful. It also expects a lot of professionalism on their part to hear.”