The Weingart Foundation, a nonprofit grantmaking organization founded in 1951 by Ben and Stella Weingart, recently released the findings from a survey conducted in March and April 2012. This marks the third survey in the past year and a half regarding the foundation's Regular Grant Program.

Through these inquiries, the foundation aims to identify how nonprofits view the application processes. It also intends to learn about prospective grantees concerns. Since this survey revealed similar results as previous polls, the foundation expects to conduct the assessments less frequently.

More than three-quarters of grantees said the letter of inquiry process was either clear or very clear and the foundation plans to follow up with the 23 percent who did not provide a response for the question. As a result of previous feedback from surveys, the foundation is already working to update its online grant reporting system to make the process easier for nonprofits. It has also added additional guidelines to improve clarity and is taking timelines into consideration, since respondents said they do not need three months to submit proposals.

Foundations that want to better serve community nonprofits might find they can improve their processes and better meet the needs of organizations with a web-based platform and a grant management program.