What makes a Good Site Visit?

I am often asked the question, "What do you want to see in this site visit?" My answer is, "It's not 'what,' it's 'who'." The reality is that a site visit is really a people visit, because people make the project.

A good site visit, whether it is related to getting a grant or reporting on an existing grant, has some specific components:

• More than one person represents the project, whether it is collaborative or internal to an organization.
  
• All (or most) collaborators are represented and prepared to speak about the project.
  
• All collaborators have a copy of the proposal or report and have had time to read it.
  
• A program participant is present and willing to talk about what this will mean or what it has meant to them, if possible.
  
• It is located in one of the sites used in the project.

• a description of the proposed project or work done in the reporting period by the people involved,
  
• questions from those making the site visit (Health Foundation staff or board members),
  
• suggestions for improving the proposal or the existing project, and
  
• timelines for any follow-up from the Health Foundation or the grantee.

Site visits are not meant to be scary...they give grantees the chance to show us who you are and vice versa. It is important that we all feel free to share our thoughts, our dreams, our challenges in doing this work with each other. So look forward to your next site visit!!!

In my next blog – what is the difference between a proposal site visit and an annual or final site visit?