The research focused on our preservation and conservation grant programme. It covered the period 2020 to 2022 during the peak of covid; at the same time we were also refreshing our website. A summary of the main findings is set out below.
I hope you find our survey results interesting. We are very grateful to everyone who took time to respond to this survey. Continual improvement is important to us and we are always happy to receive feedback and act upon suggestions to help make our application process as straightforward as possible. Sue Bowers, Director
What our applicants tell us we are doing well
Helpful and approachable
- Applicants viewed us as a respected funder, helpful and approachable. Grantees were very positive about how supportive our staff were and noted our keenness to understand them. They felt we were ‘on their side’.
Funding projects others will not consider
- Applicants praised us for working in areas that many other funders will not.
Support of early-stage projects
- Applicants commented on our willingness to support early-stage projects.
Straightforward application process
- 87% of grantees considered the application process to be excellent or very good.
- 94% of grantees believed the application process to be reasonable for the size of grant they were applying for, suggesting there are few concerns about the amount of time it takes to complete the application among grantees.
- Grantees and unsuccessful applicants believed we were better than other funders in the areas of approachability, ease of the application process, information about the grants and the speed of the decision.
The support and encouragement I received from my first telephone conversation and onwards was very helpful. I felt as if the Trust was really interested in our plans and would assist if it could, as it did. It was clear in what was required.
What can we do better?
Simplifying the process for smaller organisations
One of the main challenges we face is working with a number of smaller, often volunteer-led, organisations. These organisations said they struggle to find the time and do not have the experience of applying for funding. Many of these organisations saw this as a barrier to applying for funds from us.
Improve profile of the Pilgrim Trust and boost profile of grantees
There were a number of comments about us needing to boost our profile and the profile of our grantees. There were also comments about us promoting the heritage and conservation sector more broadly.
Our action since the survey was published
Since the research was published, we have introduced an eligibility quiz in order to make it simpler to know whether to apply to us, and we have noticed a marked increase in applications as a result. We are committed to visiting as many projects as possible to find out about them on the ground. We are continuing to publicise every single grant that we award. We publicise grant awards through our social media accounts and on our website which we relaunched in 2022. We are strongly committed to being transparent and open about our grants and decisions. That’s why we work with 360Giving, an initiative that encourages grant makers to openly publish grants data. We are starting to commission editorial content from organisations that we are funding to feature on our website.
Thank you
We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who participated in the research. With so many demands for feedback these days it can feel onerous, but it’s so helpful and we really would like to build on what we do well and improve further where we can.
A summary of the findings can be found here