Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/confessions-of-a-former-funder/5022986/
Dear Grantees who I used to fund when I had the checkbook,
I’m sorry. Now that I am in the world of operating a nonprofit agency providing early childhood and school-age programs, I’d like to start by saying I’m sorry. While my intentions when I was funding your work were good, I realize better now the impact and burden of some of what I asked of you. I know that our grant applications may have driven you crazy and that the detailed data we requested may have been difficult to gather. I better understand how it feels when funder priorities shift and change. I also realize now that there was probably a cost of doing business with us as your philanthropic partner that I did not fully recognize.
I made the apparently unusual career move of leaving a job where I formerly distributed funds for early childhood and going to one where I am leading an organization that is delivering the services. My new colleagues in the early childhood delivery system don’t understand why I would make such a move. I don’t understand why I would not. I fell in love with this work while breathing the ...