Listening to and learning from the organizations we fund is central to how we work. As part of that practice, we have invited our grantees for the last two decades to share their candid experiences of working with us through a Grantee Perception Survey administered by the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP). The 2025 Grantee Perception Report marks the tenth time we have done so since 2002. 

CEP aggregates responses to protect grantee anonymity and benchmarks our results against peer funders over time. This information helps us understand what is working and where we can do better. 

Reflecting on Our 2023 Commitments

When we commissioned the 2023 Grantee Perception Report, we were moving from strategy development into full implementation across our initiatives. Based on that report, we made five public commitments. We are pleased to share that the 2025 results, based on responses from 658 organizations, show meaningful progress on each of them — and they reinforce why sustaining these commitments matters as our work moves deeper into implementation. 

We learned from the survey results that grantees continue to recognize our commitment to justice and equity. Importantly, they rate our grantmaking processes as significantly less burdensome than those of peer funders — a gain we have sustained since 2020, when we reduced unnecessary reporting and other requirements in response to the stresses of the pandemic. A growing share of grantees receive multi-year, flexible support, and deeper engagement remains strongly associated with positive grantee experience across nearly all dimensions. This progress resulted from intentional efforts in our everyday work.  

At the same time, there is more to do. Average grant lengths and the share of multi-year unrestricted support have grown but have not yet reached the targets we established early on in our strategy periods. And grantees in some initiatives want greater clarity about how our justice and equity commitments are reflected in their specific work.  

Moving Forward: Our 2025 Commitments

Informed by this year’s results, we are reaffirming and building on our five commitments established in 2023. Several are tied explicitly to the third year of an initiative’s implementation — a milestone many of our initiatives are now reaching or approaching — so maintaining focus now is what will move us across the finish line. 

1. Strengthen understanding of our commitment to justice and equity through our grantmaking

The Packard Foundation will continue to communicate clearly about how justice and equity show up across our initiatives, including what we are learning as we go. We will also share updates on our U.S. Racial Justice initiative.  

2. Increase the duration and flexibility of support to nonprofit organizations

We reaffirm our commitment that by the third year of an updated initiative: 

        • At least 50% of grants and 60% of dollars will be multi-year, unrestricted support. 
        • Average grant length will increase to at least 2.5 years. 
        • Full costs of project grants will continue to be covered through our indirect cost policy. 
3. Invite input from grantees and the communities they serve in initiative strategy

We will continue to engage grantees through site visits, in-depth conversations, and discussion of how learning and assessment are approached. Deeper touchpoints are strongly associated with better relationships and mutual understanding. We will focus on reducing variation in grantee experience across initiatives, while maintaining initiative-level flexibility. 

4. Maintain our streamlined proposal and reporting processes

We commit to maintain the gains we have made to eliminate unnecessary paperwork and processes, codify what is working, and avoid adding new requirements that would erode those gains — even as we adapt to changing contexts. Grantees consistently rate our processes as significantly less burdensome than those of peer funders, and we are committed to keeping it that way. 

5. Learn from grantee experience during strategy shifts and apply lessons going forward

We will continue to learn from both continuing and exiting grantees to strengthen how we communicate strategy changes, timelines, and rationale — and how we support organizations through transitions. In response to the 2023 Grantee Perception Report, we adopted a set of practices related to the timing and nature of communicating shifts, and we commit to implementing those practices going forward. 

These commitments reflect both what we have learned and what the 2025 survey tells us we must sustain. We are grateful to every organization that took the time to respond and share their experience. As always, we welcome your continued feedback and questions. You can reach us at [email protected].