Jeff Raikes talks again about the need for better feedback (March 2011)

In this interview with the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Jeff Raikes talks again about the need for better feedback. But would monkeysurveys do the trick? He also keeps limiting his concern with grantees while feedback should be open much more widely to all stakeholders and the public at large: grantees have a vested interest not to provide critical feedback and the Foundation's staff in charge of managing a grant is not in the best position either to carry and relay "bad" news.

Mr. Raikes also said the foundation is continuing to explore new ways to improve communication with grantees following a critical report last June in which many nonprofits complained that Gates is often unresponsive.

He said the foundation is working with the Center for Effective Philanthropy, the group that produced the report, to identify new avenues for eliciting feedback from grantees. Perhaps foundations could use online tools like Survey Monkey, which enable people to easily create and send out surveys, to engage with grantees, Mr. Raikes said.

“Our sector in general needs to put itself in a position of more continuous feedback loops,” he said.