It bears mentioning, however, that insider jargon is not the only roadblock to understanding an article or a proposal's substance. A single sentence on the third page contains both shibboleth and de rigueur . I don't mean to criticize Proscio, especially when I consider this to be the most difficult aspect of plain-language writing. The greatest challenge of plain language may be finding vocabulary that is meaningful and succinct without being condescending and convoluted.
Foundations have boards and budgets and can do strategic planning and evaluation.
And in many of these areas, foundations are doing what they are asking their grantees to do, like diversifying their boards or doing strategic planning. I teach outcome evaluation to nonprofits here in Chicago through the Donors Forum of Chicago, and last week I taught a shortened version of the workshop to new program officers at foundations that the Donors Forum hosted. I'm not sure all of our grantees can do this. I think we should be doing this ourselves before we ask it of others. If we tried this first, we would have a much better idea of how difficult it is and how to ask it of our grantees in as clear and useful a way as possible.