Grantees Archives - Nicole Clark Consulting

13 May, 2026

How Funders Can Identify Structural Funding Barriers

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2026-05-11T12:37:41-04:00May 13th, 2026|Categories: Strategic Planning & Sustainability|Tags: Funding, Grantees, Grantmaking, Nonprofits, Philanthropy|0 Comments

Illustration of a Black woman using a wheelchair while working at a computer, with the text “How Funders Can Identify Structural Funding Barriers ” and Nicole Clark Consulting branding.

When program officers evaluate their funding portfolios, it’s natural to focus on grantee performance: Did organizations meet their goals? What outcomes did they achieve? Which approaches showed the most promise?

These are important questions, yet they tell only part of the story.

Sometimes the biggest barriers to impact have nothing to do with grantee organizations. Instead, the biggest barriers may be embedded in the structures surrounding the funding itself.

From application requirements and reporting expectations to payment terms and assumptions about what “capacity” should look like, If funders want to build stronger investment portfolios, they should identify not only how grantees perform, but how funding practices shape who can access resources and succeed.

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6 May, 2026

Ask Nicole: What Is A Strong Funder Portfolio?

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2026-05-11T11:41:53-04:00May 6th, 2026|Categories: Strategic Planning & Sustainability|Tags: Ask Nicole, Funding, Grantees, Grantmaking, Nonprofits, Philanthropy|0 Comments

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I wrote about why funders should create a process for evaluating their portfolios. Since then, I’ve been sitting with a related question: What makes a funder portfolio strong?

In my work with funders — particularly those who have brought me in to support their grantees — I’ve seen how easy it is for portfolios to take shape organically rather than intentionally. Over time, investments accumulate, priorities evolve, and new opportunities emerge. And while each individual grant may be well-intentioned, the portfolio as a whole may not reflect a clear strategy.

That’s where a more strategic, portfolio-level lens becomes essential.

Here are five questions to ask:

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4 Mar, 2026

Ask Nicole: Why Should Funders Evaluate Their Portfolios?

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2026-03-03T23:32:14-05:00March 4th, 2026|Categories: Research & Evaluation|Tags: Ask Nicole, Funding, Grantees, Philanthropy, program evaluation|0 Comments

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Over the past few years, I’ve found myself increasingly in spaces with funders.

Not only are they hiring me to evaluate individual grantee programs, but I’m also working alongside their grantees, support learning agendas, and strengthen strategy implementation.

In one recent engagement, I partnered with a funder to develop a theory of change designed to sharpen and improve their investments in sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice. That work pushed me to think more deeply about the relationship between how funders award individual grants and the broader ecosystem a funder is trying to influence.

Recently, I’ve shifted my focus toward evaluating at a more strategic level.

Not only should we ask, “Did this grantee meet their outputs?”, funders should also ask, “Is this portfolio coherent?”Is it equitable? What measurable change is this portfolio driving, and how has it increased grantees’ capacity to sustain that change?

These are bigger questions. To answer them, funders — especially program officers responsible for managing funding portfolios — must step back and examine not only what they fund, but how and why they fund it.

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19 Nov, 2025

What Nonprofits Actually Use to Plan and Track Their Work

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2025-11-19T10:55:15-05:00November 19th, 2025|Categories: Program, Service, & Campaign Design|Tags: Grantees, Logics Models, Philanthropy, Theory of Change|0 Comments

In last week’s post, I shared why logic models and theories of change (ToCs) often aren’t useful, especially when they’re created to meet funding requirements instead of guiding real-world decision-making.

This week, I want to shift the focus toward what is useful.

In response to my comment “And too often, [ToCs and logic models] are created to satisfy a requirement, not to support meaningful reflection or strategy”, a program evaluation subject matter expert replied:

Yes! This is why I would design logic models (or whatever term seemed more appropriate) that would be most helpful to the clients in helping them understand their program’s goals and how to approach them, rather than forcing everything into the same standardized template.

The tools I’ve seen my client organizations use to plan and reflect aren’t always ToCs or logic models. They’re things like annual work plans, end-of-program debriefs, and board reports.

And if you’re a funder, these tools can already tell you a lot of what you’re trying to learn about a grantee’s program or service.

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12 Nov, 2025

Ask Nicole: Why Theories of Change and Logic Models Aren’t Useful

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2025-11-10T15:25:13-05:00November 12th, 2025|Categories: Program, Service, & Campaign Design|Tags: Ask Nicole, Grantees, Logic Models, Philanthropy, Theory of Change|0 Comments

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Several years ago, I worked on a proposal for a collaborative project. The RFP asked for a narrative and a logic model for the process we were proposing. We spent time crafting both, but I remember thinking: What’s the point of requiring both, especially if you’re still going to come back with additional questions?

If the narrative is clear and if we can articulate what we’re trying to do, isn’t that enough?

I’ve also had nonprofit clients tell me they only create logic models funding, and never revisit them after submitting their proposal.. Or that they only build ToCs when funders require them, not because they find them useful. But the most striking moment was during a funder ToC session I facilitated, where program officers openly questioned whether they themselves would use the tool once it was built.

Theories of change (ToCs) and logic models are treated as standard tools. For some funders, they’re a default request to understand a grantee’s vision, approach, and impact. For some nonprofits, they’re just another part of the proposal process.

But they aren’t useful.

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