Why funding decisions should be documented
Launch library · evergreen read
Documenting how and why a funding decision was made, not just what was decided, creates a record that protects a campaign if that decision is later questioned, whether by a funder, a member or an outside observer. Memory alone fades and shifts in ways a written note simply does not.
Documentation also helps a campaign learn from its own history, since a written record of past funding decisions, including the reasoning behind them, is far more useful to future decision makers than relying on memory or informal recollection alone. Future decision makers rarely have access to the context that felt so obvious at the time.
This kind of record keeping need not be elaborate to be effective, since even brief, consistent notes taken at the time a decision is made are usually enough to provide the clarity and protection that documentation is meant to offer. A short note taken promptly beats a detailed one written from memory much later.