Like many of you, we have developed or participated in well-meaning and often very worthy grant-funded projects. Grants can provide much of the up-front capital needed to launch innovative projects and fill the financial gaps needed to make great things happen.
But most grant-funded work has a sustainability problem. After funds are spent and deliverables of a grant completed, projects often die. Funding can even sidetrack original goals so they unwittingly become coopted by those of the funder—in the process diminishing important work.
What is the problem with an emphasis on prioritizing grant funding, especially how most funders have structured them? There is over-emphasis on delivering big, impressive outcomes, and not enough on learning. More time needs to be spent on the changes in attitudes, thinking and self-awareness needed to change behaviors. And those human behaviors are in turn are linked to outcomes. Instead of starting with outcomes, begin with mapping stakeholders’ roles in trust building. This provides longer term project sustainability and allows for change as a project evolves.