The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation in Flint, Michigan, has posted a grantee perception report prepared for it by the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Mott joins a growing number of foundations that have decided to share these evaluations with the public.

To create the report, Mott provided information for all active grantees from 2003. CEP then created a random pool of 596 organizations to be surveyed, and received responses from 469, a response rate of 79 percent. In the survey, grantees were asked, among other things, to rate the foundation's impact on the fields it funds, its relationships with grantees, and its processes and administration. On almost all measures, Mott was rated above average relative to other foundations. Nonetheless, grantees made suggestions for improvement in the efficiency of administrative aspects of the selection and reporting processes. Both the reporting and selection processes are more time intensive at Mott than is typical of other foundations. Grantees acknowledge, however, that these processes help them improve.

"We received very positive responses on many measures of perceived impact, as well as on our relationship with grantees," said Mott president William S. White in a letter posted on the foundation's Web site. "The vast majority of the 1,300 open-ended comments were quite positive." Nevertheless, added White, grantees also offered suggestions for improvements, including "streamlining our administrative processes, especially for smaller grants; improving our formal communications products to increase grantees' understanding of the foundation; articulating more clearly our strategies and the reasons we fund in our chosen fields; and increasing our staffing, particularly international staff, to provide even greater levels of service."

To read or download the complete Mott Grantee Perception Report, visit: http://www.mott.org/GPR/index.asp.