Donors play a vital role in sustaining the work of civil society organizations. But beyond financial support, what actions do partner-oriented donors take to truly help us advance our missions? In this article, we highlight five best practices that define a partner-oriented donor.
Tonatiuh Paz Aguilar, Senior Consultant at COMETA
What Do We Mean by a Partner-Oriented Donor ?
Just like civil society organizations, the donors who fund our work also strive to create lasting social impact. To do this, they provide financial support to organizations that:
A. Work on issues aligned with their mission and values.
B. Are connected to changemakers and key stakeholders who can help drive meaningful change.
Each donor has their own selection criteria and supports organizations with diverse capacities and resources. Not all of us have full-time teams dedicated to administration or institutional development—including project management and reporting—and our levels of experience and expertise naturally vary.
A partner-oriented donor recognizes these differences and values the strategic work that grantees carry out. Instead of focusing solely on whether predetermined targets are met, they adjust their strategies to help strengthen organizations and invest in long-term sustainability—always keeping in mind the broader context in which that work unfolds.
How Can You Tell If a Donor Practices Shared Responsibility? Here Are a Few Signs to Look For:
1. They engage deeply with grantees to understand the context they’re working with
A partner-oriented donor:
- Takes time to learn about the risks and specific conditions grantees are navigating—sometimes even through in-person visits.
- Understands that challenges aren’t one-size-fits-all. Even if organizations work on similar issues in the same region, the dynamics at play can vary widely.
- Analyzes and guides us in understanding the actors and factors involved in complex problems, recognizing that their relevance and intensity vary depending on where they occur. For example, an organization dedicated to labor rights does not face the same challenges in the Global North as it does in the Global South.
2. They foster collaboration among their grantees
A partner-oriented donor :
- Develops strategies collectively and helps generate greater social impact among the different organizations they support.
- Creates horizontal learning spaces to encourage—without pressuring—collaboration between grantees, based on their own needs and interests.
- These spaces help us remember that we’re not alone: we share not only challenges, but also goals and strategies that can be refined by listening to and learning from one another.
3. They are flexible in how resources are used when facing contingencies
A partner-oriented donor is:
- Empathetic and open to proposals for adjusting activities or expenses in response to unexpected situations, as long as those proposals are well-grounded and comply with the donor’s rules on how resources can be used.
- Flexible, because they understand that good strategic planning means accepting that reality is unpredictable. That’s why we need the openness to adapt what we originally planned.
4. They make accountability easier
A partner-oriented donor:
- Understands that accountability is demanding work. Documenting, organizing, reporting, and calculating all our activities takes time.
- To help reduce the stress that often comes with reporting, they set clear deadlines from the start and provide simple, accessible formats for the narrative and financial reports we must submit periodically.
5. They evaluate their own work
A partner-oriented donor:
- Doesn’t just evaluate the impact of their programs once they’re complete. They also engage in self-reflection and invite us to do the same— reviewing the context we operate in, the results we’ve achieved, and what factors explain those outcomes.
- They request evaluations of their own performance, seeking evidence that helps improve the design, implementation, and follow-up of their current and future programs.
What’s Our Role as Civil Society Organizations?
These practices have important implications for us as civil society organizations. A partner-oriented donor calls for equally responsible grantees. So, how can we respond in kind? Here are a few ideas:
1. Honest and assertive communication
· Share challenges clearly, promptly, and with sound reasoning. Risks in the broader context, institutional capacity needs, and unforeseen events are part of implementation. It’s best to communicate them to our donors right away, so they can help us find solutions—or adjust plans together.
- Support our messages with evidence and possible alternatives. This strengthens mutual understanding and helps build trust.
- Talk about what we’re reflecting on, what we want to learn, and what we’re hearing from others. These exchanges help us grow and increase our impact.
2. Keep a clear record of our work
Regularly logging our activities and related expenses, in an organized way, helps build institutional memory. That memory allows us to document how our strategies were implemented, evaluate what worked well, and identify where we can improve. It also eases the stress of preparing reports.
3. Be accountable and reflective about our impact
Donors should also be accountable—and the evidence we generate is a valuable input for them. Measuring the impact of our work, based on data and collective reflection, helps us all sharpen our strategies.
Which of these best practices do you recognize in your donors —or in your own organization?
What are you doing to maintain a healthy relationship with your donors?
And if you’re a donor— what are you doing to share responsibility with your grantees?
At COMETA, we support both organizations and donors—not just with evaluation, but also with planning and designing peer exchange spaces tailored to your context.
