1
When you tell your funders that the programmes they are currently supporting are unlikely to survive unless they start applying both a climate and a gender lens to their work.
2
Your six donors @ their individual, detailed, reporting format, all of which ask for the same information, but each of which you are required to submit separately.
3
Two months after your reporting is done, when you’re waiting for the grant to be disbursed, and you follow up for the nth time.
4
Trying to tell an EdTech funder that while computers in classrooms are important, they can’t alone solve for student admission and retention.
5
Looking at a foundation’s website to try and understand what kinds of programmes they actually fund and what their funding philosophy is.
6
When you provide concrete data about how investing in organisational overheads and team well-being actually leads to more social impact.
7
When you try to tell your funders that their suggestions for your programme are too ambitious and cannot be implemented at the scale they want.
8
Every conference season. (Because we all know it doesn’t matter what the moderator asks, each panelist will be taking the opportunity to spotlight their ‘thought leadership’.)
