Using Consultants for Site Visits

Your schedule being what it is, you may not have the opportunity to conduct site visits in a timely fashion. The choice then becomes to forego site visits or to have a consultant conduct them. Although it would be ideal for you to conduct the visit personally, it is almost always better for there to be a consultant-conducted site visit than none at all. This is not to say, however, that a consultant-conducted site visit is without its own set of challenges.

First, you need to weigh the general pros and cons of working with consultants. These will be covered in detail in Chapter Ten. Second, it is unfair to all involved to simply toss a file at a consultant and expect that person to conduct a quality site visit. You need to debrief the consultant before the visit on key issues to be covered and desired outcomes to be achieved. Third, it is not realistic to expect that the consultant can do as good a job as you could. The consultant has not been immersed in the process of proposal review, nor is he or she as familiar with the general context of the foundation's grantmaking and how this request fits into that context. Fourth, it is not realistic that the leaders of the applying organization will treat the consultant in quite the same fashion as they would treat you. They will feel as if they are getting a second-stringer and will probably behave accordingly.

Nonetheless, there are also some real advantages to sending a consultant. Applicants are somedmes less guarded around consultants than around program officers. The fresh eyes of the consultant may see things that you, who are more immersed in the request, might miss. And it cannot be gainsaid that it is better to have a consultant-conducted visit than to have no visit at all.