Listening, Learning, and Growing: Insights from Our 2025 Declined Grant Applicant Survey

Under the Foundation’s strategic plan, Pathways to Health Equity, we introduced an open call process for select funding opportunities. This approach invited any organization meeting the eligibility criteria to apply, broadening access to groups not previously funded. While it created new opportunities, it also increased competition and resulted in more declined applications.

As an organization that strives to continuously learn and improve, we routinely collect data on grantees’ experiences with the Foundation through grantee convenings, ongoing conversations, and the Grantee Perception Survey facilitated by the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP). CEP is recognized in philanthropic best practices and as such has utilized grantee surveys with over 300 funders across the country, establishing baselines for comparison to peer organizations. However, while organizations that receive funding from the Foundation are an essential source of helpful feedback, they are just a part of a larger community that engages  with the Foundation. Those who apply but ultimately do not receive funding also have important perspectives to share.

In spring 2025, St. David’s Foundation partnered with CEP to survey organizations whose 2024 grant applications were declined, gathering their feedback on the funding process. In response to this first set of open call grantmaking opportunities, the Foundation collaborated with CEP to develop customized questions to explore declined applicants’ experiences with the open call grantmaking process and identify areas for improvement.

The survey received 203 responses, a 56 percent response rate, much higher than is typical of declined applicants’ surveys according to CEP. These responses were supplemented with five virtual interviews by CEP with declined applicants to provide context and offer qualitative feedback. Overall, the survey results were largely positive and also identified opportunities for improvement in areas such as engagement and process design.

Perceptions of Our Impact

Overall, applicants viewed St. David’s Foundation as being an important funder in their community with a strong reputation, impactful work, and clear funding strategies and goals. Specific findings include:

• The Foundation was ranked in the top 5% of all funders across the country for our impact on local communities (97th percentile), and applicants also rated its influence highly within their own areas of work (81st percentile).
• The Foundation is also viewed as having a clear commitment to its strategic values and priorities, being the highest rated funder for demonstrating an explicit commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in our work.
• Most applicants agreed that the Foundation communicated its goals and strategies clearly to them (94th percentile) and that messages were consistent across different resources they used to learn about the Foundation (88th percentile).

“SDF has had a reputation for excellence as a major funder in Central Texas for quite some time… SDF invests in the success of the entire organization, not just the projects/programs they are funding. So those lucky enough to be grantees are well taken care of by a thoughtful funder who comes alongside to uplift and support.” -SDF declined applicant respondent

Perceptions of Our Grantmaking Processes

Feedback from applicants about the 2024 open call process was mixed. Perceptions varied by length of relationship with the Foundation; new applicants welcomed the change, while previously funded organizations were less favorable.

• Overall, nearly 60% of applicants strongly agree that the open application process will help advance the Foundation’s mission of advancing health equity in Central Texas.
• Applicants rated the Foundation as fair and transparent (82nd percentile), but rated accessibility lower (53rd percentile). Through open ended responses, some participants described a misalignment between the stated purpose of increasing accessibility for smaller organizations and their perceptions of larger, more established organizations still ultimately receiving funds.
• A need for more consistent and candid feedback on declinations emerged from the survey. Overall, 47% of those who requested feedback received it, below the norm for funders. The honesty in which reason for declination were shared was rated in the 35th percentile, the lowest score in this survey.

These findings highlight opportunities to improve feedback mechanisms and ensure more consistent applicant experiences, which we have already begun to incorporate in our open calls since this survey.

Improvements Implemented Since Survey Launch

The Community Investments and Grants Management teams at St. David’s Foundation are committed to continued improvement and refinement of the open call process.

The Foundation implemented a formal declination strategy to provide timely, structured, and constructive feedback to applicants. This approach allowed declined applicants to discuss their submissions with program officers, clarifying the Foundation’s strategic priorities and alignment with specific funding opportunities. By establishing clear timelines and consistent touchpoints, the process not only enhanced feedback quality but also strengthened relationships with organizations across the community, beyond funding decisions.

Summary of Actionable Goals

By openly sharing both positive and negative findings, the Foundation aims to encourage future participation in applicant surveys and demonstrates a genuine commitment to learning from feedback. Below is a summary of the actionable goals St. David’s Foundation has begun to work towards:

• Determine how the Foundation can effectively build and maintain relationships with nonprofit organizations in all stages of the application process, while balancing staff capacity.
• Leverage the Foundation’s informational events to clarify open call priorities, guidelines, and requirements so that nonprofits can better assess alignment prior to applying.
• Reflect upon feedback related to a misalignment between the Foundation’s stated goals and funding decisions. Where possible, create more opportunities to share how the Foundation’s practices and funding decisions align with its intentions to work with new and grassroots organizations.
• Expand engagement with nonprofits and the broader community by actively listening and learning about their needs.
• Create additional opportunities for organizations to connect, share learning and network.

The Foundation extends sincere gratitude to every organization that applied and shared insights through the survey. These perspectives are invaluable in shaping our grantmaking practices and advancing our commitment to equity, meaningful partnerships, and impact. To learn more or access the full report, please contact [email protected].