Weekly Reads
“On occasion, grantee partners have told us that they vacillate between dread and anxiety as funder calls approach. Some may enter calls feeling like supplicants instead of like true partners. There is the invisible push to tailor their work to what they think we funders want to hear. Recognizing that this power dynamic is somewhat inevitable in philanthropy, we … have been incorporating alternative approaches to these grantee partner calls. ... [and] found three questions that have forced us to truly listen.
1. What do you want to tell us, and what didn’t we ask you that we should have?
2. Who do you need to succeed in order to do your work?
3. How are you staying happy, healthy, and whole?” [more]
Conniel Malek, True Costs Initiative for Alliance
“Deepen your understanding of race and racism — together [as a funding organization]. Develop a shared understanding of the historical context of these issues in our country and how they affect economic opportunity — before setting goals and strategy. This requires personal and organizational transformation; without both, it is difficult to achieve either.” [more]
Charles Fields, James Irvine Foundation, for Chronicle of Philanthropy
“Becoming a learning organization requires taking a systems-change view and applying it to our own work. This requires engaging an array of mutually reinforcing levers, ranging from targeted interventions to catalysts for deeper shifts, which together create a broader culture change. While there is no single route to becoming a learning organization, we hope that sharing the foundation’s practical experience will help others chart their own paths.” [more]
Walton Family Foundation
“Philanthropic leaders and donors must let go of their power. Philanthropists must not simply make investments, but return them, allowing for trust to be built in frontline communities, with no strings attached. […] Reallocating assets, which would cede not just money, but agency, to these communities, would foster a system that is more responsive to and respectful of those communities’ needs.” [more]
Crystal Echo Hawk, IllumiNative, and Favianna Rodriguez, The Center for Cultural Power, for Nonprofit Quarterly
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