At DMC, in our work with nonprofits and grantmakers, we often see the trust and flexibility that funders extend to their long-time, legacy partners. This flexibility is built on trust, history, and repeated expectations—but it can also create leniency. Sometimes organizations are allowed to continue doing things the way they always have, even when the impact is no longer relevant, the outcomes are weak, or the funding is underutilized.
These collaborations may still offer external visibility or carry weight from a branding or marketing standpoint. The association looks valuable, even when the real impact has diminished. This is why it’s critical for grantmaking organizations to analyze and reflect on these partnerships with honesty and rigor.
Legacy partners are often the ones receiving the largest share of funding. Yet grantmakers must be able to measure the organization’s impact in relation to the funder’s mission. They need a barometer that evaluates whether the partner is still meeting community needs and fulfilling the purpose of the initiative, program, or study. This kind of honest evaluation reveals the truth.
Once the results are clear, the grantmaker must decide whether to continue funding the partner at the same level or adjust expectations—giving the organization an opportunity to demonstrate whether it can meet those expectations moving forward. This is difficult work, but resources are limited, and they must be allocated where there is the greatest chance of achieving meaningful impact.
The Role of Transparency
Transparent conversations are essential for navigating these decisions responsibly. In many of our engagements, we find that grantmakers have not been clear about their concerns. As a result, reducing or ending funding can feel abrupt or unfair to the nonprofit. Transparency begins with letting the data tell the story—then giving the organization a chance to respond, problem-solve, and either recommit to the work or acknowledge that community needs and effective methods have changed over time.
Grantmakers have a significant opportunity to be intentional and transparent about what matters, what success looks like, and how expectations are evolving. Grantmakers must lead these shifts by providing clarity and guidelines while creating opportunities for partners to adapt.
At DMC, we often advise our partners to engage directly with the populations most impacted by the issue being funded. This helps grantmakers develop a deeper understanding of what is happening on the ground. It is not a replacement for the nonprofit delivering the services—but rather a way to gain insight into the lived realities the funding aims to address.
In our analyses, we sometimes see gaps between the impact data a nonprofit reports and what is actually happening in the community. This presents an important opportunity for all parties—grantmakers, nonprofits, and community members—to collaborate more effectively and strategically. Together, they can better address the issues communities are facing, improve nonprofit service delivery, and ensure funding is aligned with the greatest possible impact.
The DMC Community Transformation Team brings over 25 years of combined experience, collaborating with nonprofits, cities and towns, grant makers, and other nonprofits to make a positive impact. DMC has successfully created programs and campaigns that bridge diverse communities, addressing root causes of problems and facilitating sustainable solutions.