We’re Learning and Growing, Thanks to Our Partners

At Cal Wellness, we believe we must adapt and respond to the emerging needs of communities to deliver on our mission to protect and improve the health and wellness of the people of California. That means listening and learning from our grantee partners doing work in communities across the state every day.

To help us learn and grow, we invited grantee partners and declined applicants to participate in a confidential survey conducted by the Center for Effective Philanthropy. Below is a summary of 2023 CEP survey findings highlighting our areas of strength as a funder and opportunities for improvement, along with actions we’ve taken in response to feedback. We’re proud of our work, and we aim to do even better as we look to the future.

Richard Tate Ana Homonnay Photographer 2023 14

Now is the time to reflect on the progress we’ve made, what we’ve learned, and how we can evolve next to realize our vision of a California where everyone enjoys good health and experiences wellness.
Richard Tate
President & CEO, in "Reimagining Wellness" blog

What We Do Well

Multiyear, unrestricted grants have long been a hallmark of our partnerships with community organizations. This grantmaking practice, which demonstrates trust in our partners to use resources as they see fit to meet their missions, has become part of a broader trend in philanthropy recently featured in The Los Angeles Times. Cal Wellness has expanded this trust-based practice as a priority in our work.

As reflected in the CEP survey data, nearly two-thirds of our grant dollars are now unrestricted, placing us near the top 10% of foundations in CEP’s comparative data set. Additionally, the size of Cal Wellness grants has increased since 2017, and 79% of grantee partners reported receiving multi-year grants. “Providing unrestricted dollars has been transformative for my organization…These unrestricted funds have ultimately helped us to build an ecosystem of power to build our own capacity,” one grantee partner said.

We also were pleased that grantee partners see us as having a “higher than typical influence on public policy” and recognized our deep commitment to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion.

And we were gratified to hear grantee partners praise improvements in our grant application and grant reporting processes, saying they are easier to understand and less time-consuming.

Opportunities for Improvement

Even as we appreciate the positive feedback, we are focusing on the ways in which grantee partners said we can improve and grow. A significant theme in the CEP survey findings related to how we communicate and support grantee partners and applicants.

Partners who have received grants said they want more contact and communication with us. They expressed interest in more frequent interactions to reflect with us about their work and would like greater clarity on our foundation’s goals and strategies.

Partners also are eager for non-monetary support “beyond the grant” and want Cal Wellness to offer more spaces and places to connect and collaborate locally and statewide. Partners would like to see Cal Wellness do more to “convene, uplift community voice, and engage with community leaders in transforming California,” as one said.

We received suggestions from grant applicants about how we can improve our communication and processes, many of them focused on our open grant application process. Each year, we receive hundreds of unsolicited Letters of Interest, or LOIs, each one requiring review, consideration and feedback. In the CEP survey, grant applicants said we should further clarify our funding criteria and decision-making processes, and provide more timely feedback on applications. We take pride in being a funder that is open and responsive to the needs and ideas of the communities we serve, and it’s clear that our LOI process needs improvement.

Tina smiles at camera in outdoor setting

We've embraced many best practices to support our grantee partners whose needs are changing in response to new opportunities and challenges. We're committed to listening, learning and evolving with them.
Tina Eshaghpour
Director of Learning and Innovation

Here’s How We’re Responding

Based on these CEP survey findings, we’ve made changes to how we work and have more improvements underway.

We’ve hired key staff in our Programs, Finance, Operations, and Public Affairs teams. These new team members have strengthened our capacity to be responsive and offer more support “beyond the grant” to partners.

We’re prioritizing communication with grantee partners. We’ve expanded our capacity to connect with partners so we can increase the frequency and depth of interactions. In addition, we’ve created a more streamlined process for grant renewals, minimizing administrative work on both sides, and are working to ensure grantee partners know their primary point of contact when we experience staff turnover or changes in work assignments at the foundation.

We’ve improved our processes for grant seekers. We understand that grant applicants invest considerable time and effort in crafting LOIs, and our goal is to minimize unnecessary work and set realistic expectations from the outset. To that end, we’ve announced significant changes to our Letter of Interest process and will update our website to better explain decision-making in each funding area. In addition, we’ve refined our website’s “What We Fund” section to spell out our grant-making priorities in greater detail and are revamping our process to provide more timely feedback to declined applicants.

We’ll continue to respond swiftly to new opportunities and unexpected challenges, as we did with our Advance and Defend Wellness campaign following the 2016 election, our COVID-19 response, funding for reproductive justice and supporting the movement for racial justice and reparations.

We’ll do more to spotlight our grantee partners and their powerful work through uplifting their stories, ideas, and progress, as well as developing case studies to share how transformative change happens.

A New Chapter at Cal Wellness

Feedback from the CEP survey arrives at an exciting time at Cal Wellness. As our 10-year Advancing Wellness grant-making strategy comes to a close, we’re developing a new strategic framework to guide the foundation’s future priorities. “Now is the time to reflect on the progress we’ve made, what we’ve learned, and how we can evolve next to realize our vision of a California where everyone enjoys good health and experiences wellness,” our CEO Richard Tate said in describing how we’re Reimagining Wellness.

We pledge to keep you updated, and welcome your feedback, questions, and ideas as we work together to create a California with wellness and justice for all.

We’re Learning and Growing, Thanks to Our Partners

What We Do Well

Opportunities for Improvement

Here’s How We’re Responding

A New Chapter at Cal Wellness

For comprehensive results, see the complete findings from our 2023 CEP survey and our first CEP survey in 2017.

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