The West Marin Fund

Which state are you working in?

California

What is your relationship with the funder for this experience?

Grant currently pending

If you were funded, tell us the outcome

What year was this experience?

2023

How would you rate this funder's accessibility?

Bad

How successfully do you think this funder is accomplishing its current philanthropic goals?

Bad

Good ideas, but funds access is too bureaucratic and time-intensive.

If you had one piece of advice to give to this funder (about grantmaking or anything else), what would it be?

My feedback is not for a colleague applying, but for West Marin Fund. I want to share that it is bordering on ridiculous to have a small NGO spend 10+ hours filling out an extensive application with extensive document requirements for a grant that is from $5000-$7500. We have to either: 1) spend a senior staffer's time on this process instead of having them work on impact delivery or larger financial support opportunities; or 2) pay and external consultant to prepare the bid at a cost of $1-$2K or more. This is not a sensible way for West Marin to serve the community. For such a small grant, they could have created an application that requires an hour or less to complete. Creating extensive goals around a $5-7.5 K project and explaining your DEI journey, impacts and learning and strategic plans, and uploading years of budgets , balance sheets and more is not a good use of the NGO--nor the reviewer's time.

Tell us one thing that this funder does really well

They are working hard to support the community, which we appreciate. Their intentions are absolutely on point.

How many hours did the grant application process take?

8