When should I tell our program officer?
Tell your program officer as soon as you understand the finding well enough to explain it, and before the report is due. If you call the moment a worrying number appears, you may not be able to answer the first question you're asked. If you wait for the report, your program officer reads it cold, without the context or the plan that would help them understand it.
Some funders set their own expectations here. The federal Uniform Guidance is one example: when a significant development affects a federal award between performance reporting dates, the recipient must notify the agency, and a negative development calls for a plan for corrective action. If your grant is federal, check its terms. Whatever your funder's rules, telling them before the report is due gives them time to understand the results before they read them.
Understanding the results well enough to explain them is where your evaluator comes in. Ask them to walk you through what the evaluation found and what it can and can't tell you yet. Then you can go into the conversation ready.
How do we explain why the results fell short?
To explain why the results fell short, say what the evaluation found, what you think explains it, and what you don't know yet. Keeping those three things separate is what makes the explanation credible.
What the evaluation found is the fact: what changed, what didn't, and for whom. What you think explains it is your interpretation, and it may be about how the program ran. Perhaps it wasn't carried out as planned at one site, participants didn't receive as much of it as intended, or recruitment came in lower than expected. Those explanations matter, because a program that fell short for one of those reasons is in a different situation from one whose approach didn't work. What if the evaluation shows my program isn't working? goes through how to tell the difference.
What you don't know yet deserves its own sentence. If you're still working out why one group's results differ from another's, say so, and say what you're doing to find out and when you expect to know. An explanation offered with more certainty than the evidence supports may have to be corrected later.
How do we include what's going well without softening the findings?
To include what's going well without softening the findings, give what's working and what isn't the same plain treatment, each with its evidence. That means not putting the good news first to cushion the difficult news, and not leaving the difficult news until the end.
Evaluations often show both. A funder who hears only problems doesn't get an accurate picture of the project, and neither does one who hears only successes. Describe each result at the same level of detail, with the evidence behind it, and let the funder see the whole project.
Then connect both to what comes next: what you'll keep doing because it's working, and what you're changing because it isn't. If you're also sharing results with your board, How do I explain our results to a board that just wants numbers? covers that audience, and Will an evaluation report that shows our program isn't working cost us our grant? covers what is and isn't at risk with the funder.
The Grantibly perspective
Angelika's perspective
When you share a difficult result with your funder, you get to show them more than how the program is taking shape. You show them that you're really listening and willing to adapt, change, and innovate, and that you're thinking critically about the work you do and managing the resources it takes to make an impact. Then you can present your plans for even greater impact moving forward.
We work from a positive, hopeful perspective, looking for strengths, progress, and opportunities to make good work stronger. That doesn't mean ignoring problems, softening difficult findings, or telling clients only what they want to hear. It means approaching a difficult situation with honesty, care, and a commitment to a constructive path forward.
We want clients to call us when they're preparing for a funder conversation like this one. You don't have to work out what to say on your own.
