2021 Center for Effective Philanthropy Grantee Perception Report

The Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) Grantee Perception Report (GPR) is one of RWJF’s main tools to gather, understand, and ultimately implement grantee feedback.

Grantees and collaborators are vital to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s (RWJF) efforts to build a Culture of Health. To collectively accomplish this vision, we gather relevant information from our grantees to better understand how we’re working together and where we might improve.  

The 2021 GPR finds that on many measures grantee perceptions have remained the same or declined compared to 2019 and 2017 findings. These findings provide opportunities for improvement as we continue to build strong partnerships with grantees to achieve a Culture of Health.

The Issue

Since 2004, we have partnered with the Center for Effective Philanthropy to conduct a biennial survey of grantees about their perceptions of, and experiences with, the Foundation. CEP fielded the survey in spring 2020 in which 1,044 grantees responded, yielding a 52 percent response rate, which is comparable to previous survey administrations as well as the median of our peer comparison cohort. These responses, reported in the GPR, affirm areas of strength in our grantee collaborations and draws attention to those areas which require attention as we work together to provide equitable access and opportunities for wellbeing.

Key Findings

• Grantees see the Foundation as playing a leadership role in many of the fields RWJF funds, and sees the Foundation’s public statements on current issues as valuable to their work.
  
• Ratings related to the Foundation’s leadership in knowledge and policy remain unchanged from 2019, but these ratings now place RWJF toward the bottom of our comparative cohort.
  
• Grantees recognize new challenges in the clarity, consistency, and communication of RWJF’s vision and strategies and call for more streamlined and informative communication of the Foundation’s goals, strategies, and priorities.
• Grantees report that Foundation processes are much more efficient than in the past, and praised the flexibility in reporting and deadlines in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

About the Study

The participating grantees of more than 275 philanthropies respond to a range of survey questions, as well as some questions that are asked only of RWJF’s grantees. Responses to the survey are anonymously aggregated in CEP’s Grantee Perception Report, which provides comprehensive, actionable feedback for the Foundation.