The David and Lucile Packard Foundation in Los Altos, California, has released the results of its 2020 Grantee Perception Report (81 pages, PDF).

Based on a survey of grantees and declined applicants conducted last August by the Center for Effective Philanthropy, the report found that respondents gave the foundation high ratings for its impact on (88th percentile among peer foundations) and understanding of (92nd percentile) the grantees' fields, impact on their organizations (82nd percentile), and ability to advance knowledge (92nd percentile) and public policy (88th percentile) in the field. The foundation also was rated highly for treating grantees and applicants fairly (85th percentile), demonstrating trust in grantee organizations' staff (87th percentile), and being respectful in their interactions (86th percentile).

Areas in which the foundation will work to improve include defining diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and how it is integrating justice and equity into its work and better understanding the organizations and leaders it is funding, given that grantee organizations led by people of color rated the foundation significantly lower than respondents at white-led organizations on several measures, such as awareness of organizational challenges, understanding partner context, transparency, and communications about DEI. The foundation also will work to provide more multiyear and general operating support grants; while between 2016 and 2020, the share of multiyear grant dollars increased from 58 percent to 70 percent, the number of multiyear grants did not increase. And in response to a decline in ratings for the consistency of communications received from different sources compared with the 2018 survey, the foundation will work to improve the alignment and regularity of communications on program theories of change.

"These results come at an important time of reflection for the [f]oundation," wrote Packard Foundation president Nancy Lindborg and evaluation and learning director Meredith Blair Pearlman in a blog post. "We are currently exploring how the [f]oundation can better meet the challenges and needs of our world through a participatory process we are calling Vision to Strategy...which includes an examination of our mission and values and the development of a vision and strategic framework that clearly articulate how justice and equity show up in our work. Our GPR results — which we have discussed with our [b]oard of [t]rustees, leadership team, and staff — are an important input into this process that will inform our grantmaking."