Reporting Best Practices for Funders

Four things funders can do to make reporting easier for themselves, their grantees, and anyone who reads the results.

These four practices come up again and again with funders who run a smooth, low-friction reporting cycle. None of them require new tools. They're mostly about when and how you communicate with your grantees, and how you use the data once it comes in.

1. Be transparent and up front: share reporting expectations early and clearly.

Tell your grantees what you'll expect from their reporting as early as you can, rather than introducing it partway through the relationship. There are a few natural points to do this:

• During the application process, so an organization knows what reporting will be required before they accept funding.
• In the contract or grant agreement itself, so the expectation is written down rather than just discussed in conversation.
• With partnerships that are already underway. If reporting wasn't part of your original conversation with a grantee but will now be required, reach out to that organization directly rather than assuming they'll find out on their own.

2. Keep reporting simple and organized: make the timeline and process easy to follow.

Combine every reporting requirement into a single timeline and a single process, instead of asking your grantees to track several separate asks. We suggest grantees to report twice: the first time, at the beginning of the program, where they can forecast their results and the second time, to update the forecasts with final results.

3. Don't ask for information you don't use: keep reporting focused on social impact data.

Only ask your grantees to report on the outcomes you'll actually use. If a piece of data won't inform a decision you make or won't be shared with anyone, it's worth leaving out of the report. A more focused report is easier to complete for your grantee, easier to review for you, and easier to understand for anyone reading the published results.

4. Understand the data and make good use of it: spend real time with it before and after it's published.

Set aside time to actually read and understand what your grantees report, rather than letting it sit unreviewed. When you're ready to share that data with others, such as your board, your team, or the public, keep in mind that a number on its own can be easy to misread. Pair your data with enough context for your audience to understand what it actually means. True Impact's articles "How do I contextualize our results when sharing with external or internal stakeholders?" and "How do I explain True Impact's approach to my stakeholders?" go into more detail on this.