Information for Current Grantees

Narrative Reporting Guidelines

The Spencer Foundation requires grantees of multi-year projects to submit annual narrative reports, as well as final narrative reports at the end of the grant period. When the grant activity and funding are limited to one year, a final report is sufficient. These reports provide the Foundation with important updates on activity related to the grant. Please follow the guidelines below when preparing an interim or final report.

Interim Reports:

The interim report should answer each of the following questions in 100 words or fewer:  

• Is your study progressing as outlined in your proposal?
• Have there been alterations to the original research plan? What necessitated those revisions? (Examples include changes in research design, personnel, participants, time line, etc.)
• Is there additional information not included above that you want to add to your report?

Reports should be concise. We request that interim narrative reports be no longer than 2 pages.

Please note: Requests for budget reallocations, no-cost extensions, and grant transfers should be sent in a separate correspondence to the attention of Maricelle Garcia. 

Final Reports:

The final report should include:

• An abstract of your project in 250 words or fewer. This summary should be written for an audience that may include Spencer Foundation Board members and visitors to the Foundation website.
• A final progress report, answering each of the following questions in 100 words or fewer:
  
  
  • As a result of your study, what do we know now that we did not know before?
  • Were there alterations to the original research plan? What necessitated those revisions? (Examples include changes in research design, participants, personnel, time line, etc.)
  • How might your findings contribute to educational improvement? … in the short term? … in the long term?
  • The Spencer Foundation is committed to developing and supporting a vibrant community of researchers through activities such as mentoring early-career scholars, creating teams with diverse methodological and disciplinary backgrounds, networking, and other field-building activities. In what ways did your research project advance these aims?
  • If your project included data collection or the development of new measures, how will the data or measures be made available to other researchers?

Reports should be concise. We request that final narrative reports be no longer than 3 to 5 pages.

In addition to the final progress report, we also ask that the following listings be provided:

• A listing of published papers, book chapters, dissertations, websites, and other products that have resulted from this study. We also would appreciate receiving copies of any books resulting from the grant for inclusion in the Spencer library.
• A listing of conference papers and presentations that have resulted from this study.
• A listing of the ways you have communicated the results or implications of your work to communities of practice and policy.
• A listing of the research personnel involved in the project. Please provide their names, whether they received funding, and indicate for each individual his/her academic role: faculty member, postdoctoral student, graduate student, undergraduate student, or other (please specify).

Please email your report as an attachment using Microsoft Word format to Maricelle Garcia at mgarcia@spencer.org.

If you have any questions, please contact Maricelle Garcia via email at mgarcia@spencer.org or via phone at 312-274-6515.

Please send books to:

Maricelle Garcia
Spencer Foundation
625 North Michigan Avenue
Suite 1600
Chicago, IL 60611