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In this week’s Leadership Newsletter, we examine how participatory grantmaking practices benefit communities by redistributing and democratizing power. Kelley Buhles outlines why and how to get this done in her energizing and practical primer, considering vital lessons philanthropy can learn from those it has systematically excluded. Meg Massey and Ben Wrobel get to the heart of participatory grantmaking as a drive towards justice and democracy: “What if people with lived experience had the power to devise and implement solutions to the problems they face?” We excerpt from their important book, Letting Go: Philanthropy and the Zen of Participation, where they call for philanthropy and impact investment leaders to cede their tight grip on power. As Josh Lerner demonstrates in his contribution to this ongoing conversation, such a power shift ensures that funders “serve as schools of democracy, not defenders of oligarchy.”
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