Just started reading this book by Gemma Bull and Tom Steinberg and think it is going to be a thought-provoking and interesting read. They are aiming to provide a 'how to' guide for grantmakers that seeks to instill in people ways of working that get us away from the problems of some more traditional approaches to disbursing funds.

These weaknesses are pretty well-known and often discussed such as overly bureaucratic processes, a propensity to fund social contacts, and a failure to use evidence to focus your fundraising. Where it starts to get more interesting is when they move on to talking about the values that they think should underpin grantmaking.

Not to give the game away - there are five - the one that set me thinking was 'service'. I think it is the only one we haven't discussed as one of our organisational values at OCF. The authors advocate for grantmakers seeing grantees as a group of people and organisations to whom we are providing a service rather than people holding out a begging bowl. After all, we need to pay out funds, we need to see positive impact from that money. None of this can we do without good partner organisations. Without them, we cannot fulfil our mission so it makes sense to treat them as valued customers.