Funder Engagement
Funders can be
colearners in listening.
Funders can support grantees’ efforts—and explore how feedback data can inform their own grantmaking work—by partnering with and sponsoring grantees’ participation in Listen4Good.
Funders discuss the importance of listening.
Playlist
Our current funding partners.
- Barr Foundation
- Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation
- Charles Schwab Bank
- Communities Foundation of Texas
- David and Lucile Packard Foundation
- Elkhart Community Foundation
- Episcopal Health Foundation
- Fondation Chanel
- Ford Foundation
- Ichigo Foundation
- Kamehameha Schools
- Korean American Community Foundation
- Leo M. Shortino Family Foundation
- Lever for Change
- MacArthur Foundation
- Michigan Health Endowment Fund
- Obama Foundation
- Overdeck Family Foundation
- Sobrato Philanthropies
- The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation
- The Assisi Foundation of Memphis
- The Boston Foundation
- The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation
- The Heinz Endowments
- The James Irvine Foundation
- The JPB Foundation
- The Kresge Foundation
- The Liz Blake Giving Fund
- The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation
- The Moses Taylor Foundation
- The Nelson Foundation
- Tipping Point Community
- United Way of Tarrant County
- United Way of West Central Mississippi
- Urban Child Institute
- Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust
- W.K. Kellogg Foundation
- William Penn Foundation
- Younger Family Fund
- Tipping Point Community
- Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust
- William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
- Younger Family Fund
How to engage.
Funders join Listen4Good by sponsoring or underwriting participation in the two programs we offer for nonprofits. In doing so, you’ll join a community of funders and social sector actors committed to advancing feedback.
Listen4Good recruits organizations to participate in one of two cohorts annually. Our July cohort has a registration deadline of June 1 and our January cohort’s deadline is December 1.
LISTEN4GOOD PREMIUM is the next generation core program we’ve been operating since 2016. It matches organizations with a single dedicated feedback coach to guide them through L4G’s 18-month process. Participants also enjoy full access to our self-guided online tools and support, including our web app and online community. The cost to participate in Premium is $7,500.
LISTEN4GOOD ONLINE+ offers full access to our online tools and web app. It also provides access to a robust group webinar series and 1:1 coaching services from our pool of professional feedback coaches targeted to the most crucial stages of the feedback journey. All of this comes at a fee of just $2,500.
By participating in Listen4Good, organizations:
Learn skills
Participants increase 1 point on a 5-point scale in technical skill development within 1 year of participating in Listen4Good
Improve programs
81% of organizations make programmatic changes in response to feedback within 1 year of participating in Listen4Good
Become more client-centered
89% of organizations planned or have made changes in response to surfaced inequities in service delivery
Select the funding package that works for you.
Many forms of capacity building, including the ability to listen systematically to those you serve, have real costs attached. Given this, we provide a range of ways for funders to add capacity-building grants to cover grantees’ implementation costs for Listen4Good.
|
LISTEN4GOOD ONLINE+ |
LISTEN4GOOD PREMIUM |
LISTEN4GOOD PREMIUM PLUS |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Program term | 18 months | 18 months | 18 months |
| Web app and related content | |||
| Coaching |
Upon request (3 hrs / year) |
Dedicated partner (10-15 hrs / year) |
Dedicated partner (10-15 hrs / year) |
|
Group Learning - Webinars Group Learning - Listen4Good facilitated learning community* |
Core N/A |
Optional For additional fee |
Optional For additional fee |
| Capacity-building grant from sponsor** | --- | --- | $10,000 / organization |
| Estimated cost to sponsor | $2,500 / organization | $7,500 / organization | $17,500 / organization |
* Customized learning cohorts are available for an additional negotiated fee.
** Historic cost analysis suggests that a capacity-building grant of $15,000 – $20,000 can be extremely beneficial to support implementation costs related to Listen4Good.
Looking to learn more?
Reach out to us for a conversation.
We’d be happy to talk through the specific needs of your philanthropic institution and explore how Listen4Good can help you and the nonprofits you support benefit from direct client feedback.
Access our Funder Guide.
We're currently updating this guide, so please check back here or contact us at hello@listen4good.org to obtain it as soon as it is ready. The guide can be shared with colleagues and grantees to begin a discussion about how getting systematic about direct feedback can help organizations forge stronger community connections and deepen their impact.
FAQ
We have seen foundations take a range of approaches to selecting participating organizations. Some have provided the opportunity widely, asking organizations to opt-in. Others have embedded participation into pre-existing capacity-building programs focused on measurement or equity.
You can pay for your grantees to participate in Listen4Good under multiple payment arrangements — by providing a grant to Listen4Good or we can invoice you for the cost. Some funders also choose to provide a grant to organizations that then pay Listen4Good.
See our Funder Guide for information to share with other stakeholders.
We provide a range of customized learning community options — ranging from LIsten4Good facilitated meetings of sponsoring funders and nonprofits to regional gatherings involving additional local stakeholders. We also can produce aggregate insight summaries for sponsoring funders and their nonprofit partners, synthesizing trends in feedback. Please contact us directly to learn more.
In general, we do not intermediate capacity-building grants but encourage you to provide grants directly to participating organization. However, in some instances, such as when a funder collaborative is supporting participation, we can intermediate and distribute the capacity-building grants to nonprofits for a transaction fee.