In spring 2011 Grant Makers for Effective Organisations (GEO) surveyed all Oak Foundation programme staff and interviewed select staff from Oak and peer organisations to better understand re-granting practices. GEO summarised its findings into a report to Oak Foundation in August 2011. A panel of Oak staff used the report to draw up these guidelines.

These guidelines will help programme staff develop a re-granting project and establish the optimum re-granting relationship. The aim of these guidelines is not to prescribe a particular approach or structure for re-granting but to bring together the experience in re-granting of Oak programme staff and their peers in other foundations. Each section of the guide ends with examples, mostly from Oak Foundation’s work, that illuminate the guidelines.