By Richard Graham*
BondSeptember 2002
Power. Fear. Ambition. Frustration. How often do we hear these words in development? Words describing human relationships. Rarely, I'd say. Instead we tramp through muddy phrases like capacity building, empowerment, sustainability and participatory appraisal.
Development, I'd suggest, is a chain of human relationships linked by a common desire to improve the lives of poor and disadvantaged people. The chain links ordinary people, local NGOs, international NGOs and grant makers. Each link is different but what keeps us bound to one another is our common goal.
But all too often, the links in the chain are weak. Why? It'd be easy to say it was because some people in the chain have more power than others, and that their power comes from being able to control the money. To suggest otherwise would be foolish and naí¯ve. But it needn't always be thus.
Let's pause to look at the way we do things at the moment. Comic Relief, like many other grant makers, runs a competitive grant application process. This gives every UK charity the chance of getting their projects funded, while giving us the chance to pick the ones we like most. At this point, we undoubtedly have considerable power in our relationships with others. This competitive application process has some serious drawbacks. Applicant agencies feel under pressure to over-promise. If they don't, they fear they won't get the money. After all, only one out of every four applications to Comic Relief gets a grant and the statistics are similar for other grant makers. Agencies have to show they're going to make a difference - preferably a big difference.
Agencies that over-promise tend to build up expectations - not just with grant makers but with others as well. And then tend to under-deliver. How can they not? So the strain on the chain starts to build.
Few agencies apply for just one grant. Most want to develop and grow. They're ambitious. Nothing wrong with that. So they make more grant applications, accelerating the cycle of over-promising, if not over-commitment. Which in turn leads to an often desperate struggle to manage expectations and their organisation's reputation. Annual reports invariably say things are going just fine. No one talks about what isn't working. The fear of failure is too great. No one ever mentions the strain on the chain.
At some point, some of the links on the chain will start to give way. It's inevitable. Frustration boils over. There is conflict. Maybe finger-pointing. Mistrust sets in. It all gets a bit ugly. We've all been there. And we all know how long it takes to rebuild trust and confidence, to reconnect the links in the chain. A lot longer than it would have taken to avoid the breakdown in the first place.
Fast forward to 'investment grants'. This is a model of grant making being piloted by Comic Relief under our international grants programme for children and young people. Under this scheme we commit to give applicants and their international partners unrestricted funding of up to £1 million for a period of up to five years. An element of competitive bidding still exists at the beginning, but what is distinctive about investment grants is that Comic Relief will work with the agency to jointly agree the objectives of the investment grant and how it will be monitored.
Part of this process will involve - and require - investing in personal relationships, because instead of funding a distinctive programme we will be investing in an organisation and its partners. Comic Relief - and the funded organisations along the chain - will need to deepen our understanding of what each of us can offer but also the constraints we work within. We will need to be able to ask for help and support at the right moments. And be willing to admit and forgive failures when things don't work out. We should be able to plan and learn together so that successes and failures are shared. Which in turn should build up trust and confidence between each link in the chain.
This isn't to say conflict won't occur. But if we work on our personal relationships it does mean that when there is a strain on the chain, we are all better placed to manage it and make sure the chain doesn't break.
Richard Graham is Director of International Grants at Comic Relief.
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