Finding information about funding opportunities for not-for-profits on Ontario.ca

User Research and Content Design project

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The Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery (MPBSD) and the Ministry of Red Tape Reduction (MRTR) are working together to improve the experience of not-for-profit organizations seeking funding information on Ontario.ca.
Various Ontario ministry programs offer funding for not-for-profits, provided through the Transfer Payment Ontario (TPON) system. Funding information is usually available on Ontario.ca, but not-for-profit organizations have reported difficulty finding this information outside the TPON system.
To address this, MRTR and the Digital Communications team at MPBSD made some content-related changes on Ontario.ca, and the teams would like to get feedback from not-for-profits about what they can access.
To support this effort, the ministries have engaged the Ontario Digital Service XD Lab to conduct user research to help identify opportunities for improvement in the way not-for-profits find funding information.

Research Objectives

Objectives

1.Understand user needs and expectations when looking for funding
2.Understand user expectations for and experiences with searching for funding opportunities from the government of Ontario
3.Evaluate people’s experiences navigating the Ontario.ca not-for-profit funding page, and areas of confusion, wariness, or mismatches in expectations.

Methodology

User Research

User research for this project consisted of six semi-structured interviews

Opening interview about role, experience with applying or supporting applicants for grants and tasks
Observation of grant searching search practices via search engines
Observation of searching for grant opportunities on Ontario page
Reflect on overall impressions and gather general feedback

Participants

User research for this project consisted of six semi-structured interviews

Successful applicants who have applied for government funding in Ontario and received funding
Prospective applicants who are interested in finding funding but did not apply for Ontario’s funding resources
Organizations who assist not-for-profit organizations in Ontario

Limitations

Very low response rate and sample size
Our participant pool did not include anyone whose organizational budgets were on the higher side of our target for diversity.
Also, we did not hear from anyone whose organization has headquarters in Northern Ontario, or who focus on that region in their work.
None of our participants identified as Indigenous, or worked for organizations who target their efforts specifically to Indigenous clients.

Findings

Key data needed for efficient searching

Participants described the need for a few key pieces of data in their search for funding, and how those data help them decide whether to explore or dismiss an opportunity.

Critical information such as deadlines, eligibility criteria, funding amounts, and even grant descriptions can help people quickly determine if an opportunity is worth their time to explore further, of if they can comfortably dismiss it.

Challenges related to staff

Participants noted that finding funding can be particularly challenging for smaller not-for-profit organizations because of their staffing models:
Some not-for-profits do not have staff or volunteers dedicated to funding, so the task is frequently a small part of someone’s role.
Smaller organizations may experience more turnover in staff or volunteers, so the people looking for and applying for funding are often doing so for the first time, and may have little guidance.

Limited awareness of available funding

Smaller or newer organizations may have limited awareness of available funding due to lack of experience with applications.
These kinds of organizations may lack awareness of where to look for funding opportunities due to their limited resources and experience.

Efficiency of familiar opportunities

Participants are more inclined to revisit familiar grant or funding opportunities than seek out unfamiliar resources.
Some participants felt that many opportunities are vague and unclear with their eligibility criteria. Given this, organizations are more likely to re-apply to familiar funding opportunities, as they already know if they are eligible.
Organizations are eager to save time on this task, so known resources, such as the Trillium Foundation, are valuable

Supports to find and identify opportunities

Some create and maintain their own lists of sources to which they can refer, or which they can share with others in their organizations.
Many referred to subscription-based services that collect and notify them of relevant grant and funding opportunities to ease their search burden and serve as reminders.

Sense of missing out on opportunities

Because of the burdensome process and various challenges in this task, many not-for-profits feel they are missing out on opportunities with every funding cycle.
Participants suggested that they want a simple and clear way to identify relevant opportunities for their organizations.
Many have expressed that it is challenging to find funding opportunities with enough time to apply before the deadline.

Content Design

Changes and improvements for the future:

As a team we established that a chart would create an easier search experience for users seeking funding opportunites.
We utilized content design best practices when designing the chart to include plain language so that the information is easier for users to understand, limited the amount of information on the chart to prioritize what was most important to users and reorganized similar content to be organized together.

Original page

Sketches

Sketches of chart