Earlier this year, we asked our grant partners across Western New York and Eastern Massachusetts to tell us how things are going: what’s helping, what’s getting harder, and what you need from funders like us right now. We’re grateful to everyone who took the time to respond.
We heard from 70 organizations, a mix of current and past grant partners working across both of our funding regions. A few things stood out.
- General operating support was named as by far the most pressing need by 80% of respondents, followed by capacity building (44%) and support for ongoing programs already doing good work (37%). Support for staff wellbeing or burnout was the next highest need identified by 26% of you.
- Those needs line up closely with what you told us has actually been most helpful from funders: unrestricted funding (64%) and multi-year commitments (62%) topped that list as well.
- On the harder side, the most common frustrations were about instability. For instance, funders scaling back or discontinuing support (47%) and funding with no signal about renewal (39%). Top concerns also included reporting burdens that feel out of proportion to grant award size (42%) and frustration with delayed funding decisions that make planning difficult (34%).
The comments you shared with us were also helpful to us. Several of you described how public and philanthropic funding shifts are compounding right now; even organizations without a direct federal funding cut are feeling funders redirect elsewhere, which can put steady, effective programs on shakier ground. Others connected funding structures directly to staff burnout, particularly where cost-of-living adjustments haven’t kept pace with real costs. And many of you described leaning on informal collaboration and peer support to fill gaps – a real strength in this cohort of respondents, though several of you were candid that those partnerships are running on already-stretched staff time.
As it relates to the Tower Foundation specifically, general operating funding, multi-year commitments, and Programs & Services funding were the funding types you named as most useful from us, followed by your relationship with your program officer and capacity building support. This tells us there’s a range in what organizations need, but that flexible, multi-year support for work you’re already doing sits at the center of it.
Most of you told us you’re comfortable with the Tower Foundation shifting our grant opportunities from year to year, as long as those changes reflect a response to community needs, while some of you wanted to know more about how we make those calls, or told us that more consistency would help you plan. Fair on all counts. Several of you specifically suggested longer grant terms and earlier communication about changes as ways we could make shifts easier to plan around.
To get a feel for how our partners are doing right now, we also asked leaders to describe how they’re feeling in one word (you’ll see those responses represented in the accompanying word cloud). We were struck by the conviction and honesty in what you shared, and we’re deeply grateful for your persistence in a truly difficult moment for this sector.
We don’t yet know exactly what 2027 will look like, but your feedback is directly shaping how we’re thinking it through. Questions about the survey or what we’re learning? Reach out to Megan at mtm@thetowerfoundation.org.