After the Grant - Building Donor Relationships

Saturday Skill Ups is a free online learning series by New Venture Partners for professionals in community-based organisations and small nonprofits. Each expert-led session is designed to help teams strengthen skills, build confidence, and adapt to the evolving social sector.

The eight-part series covers key themes:

• Effective programming

• Quality communications

• Resource mobilisation

• Organisational strengthening
  
  

Session 8 | After the Grant - Building Donor Relationships

Do you often wonder why miscommunications happen between donors and partners? How can we avoid the endless “chasing” for updates or approvals? What tools and practices can make communication smoother?

If yes, then this session is for you!!

In this session, we will look at the most common reasons for communication gaps between funders/CSR teams and implementing partners. These gaps—such as delays, unclear instructions, or repeated follow-ups—can damage trust and take away valuable time from actual project work. We call this “The Chase.”

The session will show how moving from ad-hoc updates to more planned and structured communication can help build stronger partnerships. The goal is to make communication transparent, respectful, and effective so that both sides can focus more on achieving outcomes and less on administrative work.

Who should attend?

• Implementing partners: Leaders, field staff, CSR/Marketing leads, M&E staff, Accounts team members
  
  

• Donor representatives: CSR leads, monitoring and compliance staff, CSR executives
  
  

• Intermediaries and CSR support organisations
  
  

• Agencies that design or manage development projects in India

Before the session

To make the most of this session, you may want to check these short resources:

• Understanding CSR Donor Expectations on Data and Reporting

• Key Guidelines & Best Practices Towards Donor Retention

• Donor Reporting and Disclosures

About New Venture Partners

New Venture Partners is a social enterprise that supports CBOs and growth-focused nonprofits in scaling their impact. They provide guidance in fundraising, programme design, and organisational capacity building. With expertise in areas like M&E, compliance, web design, and finance, NVP helps turn ideas into action.