A funder isn't satisfied with your project's progress. How will you turn their dissatisfaction into success?

To turn a funder's dissatisfaction into success: Acknowledge and Understand Concerns: Meet with the funder to fully grasp their issues. Assess the Situation: Review the project to identify problem areas. Develop a Response Plan: Create a detailed plan to address concerns with clear goals and timelines. Communicate Transparently: Provide the funder with an honest update and share the response plan. Implement Changes: Execute the plan and align your team with the new goals. Monitor and Report Progress: Track progress and keep the funder informed with regular updates. Engage the Funder: Involve them in key decisions to show you value their input. Celebrate Milestones: Highlight and share successes to demonstrate positive momentum.

It is very important to understand what is the reason behind not being happy about the progress. If is project-related or something else. The following steps I would have taken in such a scenario. 1. Acknowledge the concern from the funders and initiative open communication. 2. Check the progress against the logframe and identify where the project is not where it should be. 3. Dig deeper, identify the reasons, impact on project completion and measures to mitigate. 4. Develop a 1 or 2-pager document for the funder showing the progress, challenges and the measures in place. 5. Arrange a meeting with the funder and share the documents to initiate discussion, ask for suggestions & advice. 6. Agree on a plan to address the challenges.

A funders dissatisfaction can easily be addressed by examining it from their view. What was supposed to happen? Why didn't it? Some answers include scope creep, lack of oversight, or other dependencies. An experienced grant administrator can control the first two, but may need to investigate tasks and responsibility. The limits of the project (the scope) can be be found in the original grant agreement or proposal. Is it materially different than what is happening on the ground? Lack of oversight can be corrected with conversations, follow up, and re-setting expectations. A grant admin should be able to identify gaps in the process, remedy communication issues, and reinvigorate the project. Dependencies are... whoops, character limits!!!

Acknowledging their concerns is a way of showing ownership and commitment to making a turnaround and improving things to getting a solution

It is important to acknowledge concerns. For instance, in my current role, donors often express dissatisfaction with the effectiveness of project outcomes. On one occasion, a donor was unhappy with the number of beneficiaries reached. I took the initiative to analyze the planned figures against the proposal's rate and timeline. Additionally, I identified and communicated the implementation challenges that hindered smooth execution.

Communicate changes in scope in advance, then consistently share progress and how funding is used to keep the funder updated. Maintain transparency throughout the process and provide a final report highlighting challenges and impact.

I'd advise to assess the what's, why's and how's of funder's dissatisfaction before engaging into Reassessing Objectives. Otherwise you may step into the same problems again and again.

Muchas veces el proyecto se ve diferente en el papel, la realidad nos impone diferentes objetivos. En un proyecto asumimos, que la educación en línea supliría la educación presencial. La realidad es que los jóvenes involucrados se interesaban poco o no contaban con las herramientas para atender las clases virtuales. Volvimos a trazar los objetivos a la educación presencial y pudimos satisfacer las expectativas que habíamos planteado en un principio.

Assuming the lack of progress has a genuine good reason, you can use this to either get more funds approved, or by requesting a move of funds from one line item to another. With nearly all reasearch related grants, the outcome is never certain.