Giving Compass' Take:

• In this Social Velocity interview, Eric Weinheimer, President and CEO of Forefront, discusses how to build more transparency and trust in the nonprofit world.

• The key takeaway here is to put the focus on the larger mission, rather than money. That helps start more open conversations between funders and grantees.

• Here's more on how we need to shift power dynamics in the sector.

In the conversation on Real Costs we’ve learned that it’s not about creating another resource or a toolkit. Its not about what grantmakers or nonprofits should or should not do. Rather, it’s about starting an honest conversation. There are so many grantmakers and nonprofits that haven’t had the opportunity to dig in and engage with this work, either independently or with feedback from their counterparts.

Our value-add is to catalyze these conversations. Forefront’s role is to create the space for honest dialogue, mobilize our members around this issue, promote best practices, and curate and share the newest research. It’s a slow and gradual process, but it ultimately leads to change in awareness, understanding and behavior.

Likewise, nonprofits have become more transparent, but they are still too reluctant to admit to challenges or failures because of possible consequences to their funding. Funders could model this practice for the nonprofits much more than they currently do. Funder transparency is only in its infancy.

Read the full article about communication between nonprofits and funders by Nell Edgington at Social Velocity.