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Talking to funders about failure

It is hard to talk about failure: what hasn’t worked, what didn’t go so well, and when you had regroup and change tactic. For many grantees, it can feel particularly hard to talk to their funders about this. I think sometimes there is a feeling that you want to impress, you want to assure that things are going well, and you don’t want to scare them away.

That’s why its so valuable when a funder accepts that this is part of the process, sees it as valuable learning, and encourages grantees to share this. We are grateful to the Paul Hamlyn Foundation for being just such a funder. We think we can learn a lot about how to have open and honest conversations with funders through this project – and will share as we go!

How do you have open and honest conversations with funders?

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