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Collaboration
Winter Is Here, and the Wall Between Funders and Nonprofits Must Come Down
Grantmakers and nonprofits can face today’s pressing social issues only if we break down the walls between us and see each other as partners on the same side.
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Collaboration
Grantee Inclusion for Community Empowerment
Grantee inclusion can help correct the power imbalance not only between foundations and nonprofits, but also between marginalized communities and the broader power structures that perpetuate inequity.
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Collaboration
Start with a Shared Vision
True grantee-funder partnerships are based on a shared vision of the future. Creating a strategy to achieve that vision requires listening and clearly defining roles.
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Collaboration
Pleasantly Surprised by What’s Inside Pandora’s Box
It’s critical to test different approaches to grantee inclusion and to incorporate new learning along the way.
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Collaboration
Getting to the Heart of Healthy Funder-Grantee Relationships
Three practices successful social sector partnerships can adopt to improve their alignment and generate better results.
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Collaboration
Grantee Inclusion: A Step Towards Mutual Accountability?
Grantee inclusion is not sufficiently powerful to transform grantee-funder relationships, but it might present a vision for a sector that more evenly shares power.
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Leadership
The Gift of Grantee Inclusion
Grantee inclusion requires learning, risk-taking, and letting go of cherished behaviors and ways of working to make progress.
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Collaboration
The Ripple Effect of Foundation Culture
Foundations’ internal practices and culture ripple out to grantees in meaningful ways, and it directly accelerates or impedes grantees’ effectiveness.
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Collaboration
Walking a Different Kind of Grantmaker Walk
By actively moving into the roles of advocate and partner for grantees, grantmakers can cultivate trusting, transparent relationships that ultimately translate into social impact.
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Collaboration
Four Ways to Bridge the Grantee-Grantmaker Power Gap in Collective Impact
As grassroots and “grass-tops” groups come together to create collective impact, funders have the power to foster truly authentic engagement and co-ownership among all.
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Collaboration
Four Dating Tips to Sustain Strong Grantmaker-Grantee Relationships
Relationships take work—and those between grantees and grantmakers are no exception.
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Collaboration
Ask Questions, First to Learn but Then to Act
Now, more than ever, grantmakers are asking questions and working to learn with and from their grantees, but the lessons matter only if they inform future action.
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Collaboration
Who’s Getting Paid to Advance Grantee Inclusion?
It’s time to recognize how inequity shapes funders’ choice of partners.
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Collaboration
Grantee Inclusion: What’s It All About?
Including grantees in decision-making, program-building, and strategy is critical to effective social impact. While the things grantmakers “do” are important, authentic inclusion also requires that they embrace a new mindset.
IN-DEPTH SERIES
Putting Grantees at the Center of Philanthropy
Research shows that grantmakers that are more connected to their grantees—those that have an ear to the ground—are more likely to provide the support that nonprofits need to be successful; they are five times as likely to offer capacity-building support and two times as likely to offer multiyear support. We also know that tapping the knowledge and perspective of grantees and community members builds trust and helps shape more-effective solutions.
While we’re making progress as a field, foundations still aren’t as effective as they could be, because they aren’t taking time to cultivate open, trusting relationships with their grantees. Barriers that prevent us from building those authentic relationships include power dynamics, internal processes, and foundation culture. These barriers often don’t have straightforward “technical” solutions. Overcoming them requires that grantmakers confront the status quo, and change longstanding behaviors and practices.
This series, produced in partnership with Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, tells the story of why and how grantee inclusion is key to effective philanthropy, from both the funder and nonprofit perspectives.
