Partner Perception Report (PPR) 2025

Laudes continues to be perceived as a leader in partners’ fields

Laudes' impact on partner organisations has declined since 2022

“Their support has been instrumental in enabling our organisation to grow and deliver impact, particularly through consistent core funding for our policy work. They are a transparent and engaged funder, fostering a strong sense of collaboration.” 

Opportunities for more tailored support beyond grants

• Overall, 87 percent of partners reported having received at least one form or non-monetary support from the foundation. Importantly, when asked about the types of support partners have received from Laudes, nearly half reported receiving field-building support (e.g., networking and collaboration) or grant-related support (e.g., communications, strategy and fundraising).

• However, when asked which types of support partners would like to receive more of moving forward, 83 percent of partners selected fundraising. This was reaffirmed in qualitative responses, which in addition, often emphasised the need for better network opportunities between partners, and opportunities for Laudes to play an enhanced "connector" role across the field.

"We would love to see Laudes playing an even greater role in bringing actors together. We have always felt that Laudes can be a great facilitator [and we] would love to see an even bigger commitment to bringing people together."

Desire for an enhanced funder experience – partner relationship and better communication

• In continuance of similar results in from the PPR 2022, partners’ praise for the Laudes team in qualitative responses described staff as “very professional,” “driven,” “thoughtful,” and “critical friend[s].” Partners provide large agreement that Laudes staff bring conviction, accountability, adaptability, and courage to their partnership with them. Nearly 70 percent of partners provided ratings of either six or seven (on a 1-7 scale) across all four measures. Similarly, partners perceived that Laudes has clearly communicated what Gender Equity and Social Inclusion (GESI) mean for its work and demonstrates an explicit commitment to GESI in its grantmaking, providing more positive ratings than most of its peer funders.
• However, for all measures related to the strength of funder-partner relationships, partner ratings are below the typical funder in CEP’s dataset. On a few measures, partners’ perceptions of their relationships have significantly declined from their 2022 PPR levels – including in partners’ comfort approaching the foundation staff if a problem arises and the extent to which Laudes exhibits compassion for those affected by their work.
• Laudes’ partners have generally high-touch interactions with their Foundation contacts. Compared to the typical funder, a larger proportion of Laudes partners reported having contact with the Foundation monthly or more often. Notably, on average, Laudes partners agreed that this frequency of contact is sufficient.
• In-line with 2022 PPR results, partners continue to give lower ratings than the typical CEP funder on the consistency and quality of communications. Qualitative comments reinforced this with some suggestions focused on the transparency of communication:

“Laudes should be more transparent about the different activities it supports, and how they interrelate.”

“I think perhaps the only missing piece would be to have a clearer understanding of the wider ecosystem, strategies and partnerships that are happening beyond specific thematic focus areas and have opportunities to feed back into their thinking for future approaches. We have hints of this bigger picture, but do not yet feel fully plugged into it.”

Opportunities to further refine grant processes and requirements

• Many partners describe the grant processes as “well structured” and “user-friendly.” Furthermore, most ratings across the one to seven scale are in five range. However, partners’ quantitative results are lower than the typical CEP dataset.
• In line with the 2022 PPR partner ratings and qualitative comments suggest opportunities to further streamline and clarify the grant selection and review processes and continue to improve and tune the rubric measurement approach used to capture contributions to industry change which is central to the Laudes strategy.
• Notably, partners reported spending nearly half as much time as in 2022 PPR on grant processes and requirements, although this remains higher than most other funders in CEP’s dataset. Partners spent approximately 77 hours on grant design (45 hours), implementation and reporting (15 hours) process compared to nearly 139 in 2022.
• Although reporting is rated amongst approximately five out of seven, it is amongst the lowest when compared to the CEP dataset. Partners qualitative comments indicated an even split between appreciation for Laudes systemic measurement approach using rubric-ratings and opportunities for improvement and simplification:

“The reporting process, especially the rubrics framework, is complex but has led us to key insights about our work.”

“Laudes plays a strong role in bringing actors in the field together, something that we are very grateful for and feel could be enhanced even further. Beyond the grant itself, we have also learned a lot from their rubrics system and would love to see Laudes pushing for more Rubrics [measurement] and learning in the overall philanthropic sector.”  

"I do think the rubrics are a good concept, but the format for using them is a bit complicated"

"This is the only thing that Laudes could improve in my view - making it more self-evident how to structure both proposals and reporting cycles against the rubrics."