The COVID and social justice crises are requiring us to think of what we have been doing to effectively and nimbly support change. It is an interesting time, a scary time, and most importantly, a time in which we, as a sector, should be leaning in and taking incredible risks to create and support justice and equity.

The sector has generally subscribed to certain grantmaking expectations, rituals, and routines for years, embracing them as things that have always been done and should continue. We have thus tended to uniformly engage in grantmaking, often questioning the edges of our practices, but rarely the core. 2020 presents a key moment to fundamentally reconsider how we engage in grantmaking. Indeed, risk protocols should be challenged, new practices should be welcomed, and innovation should be explored in order to cause seismic shifts of power towards marginalized communities that have been historically left out of conversations.

Here, I highlight three areas of focus within grantmaking for foundations interested in creating and supporting this kind of transformation.

  1. First, ensure that the grantmaking process is accessible. 
  2. Second, start providing more flexible funding and support. 
  3. Third, expand the types of grantees that are supported. 

Read the full article about transformational grantmaking by Nicole Campbell at PEAK Grantmaking.