Giving Compass' Take:

• As part of the Liberate Philanthropy blog series (curated by Justice Funders), The Whitman Institute's Pia Infante discusses how a trust-based approach can break through barriers that often hold organizations back from fulfilling their potential.

• Do you still fall into the trap of letting the biggest grantees win out? This piece makes the case for more nuanced thinking in the funding process and searching for deeper connections.

• Here are some more grantmaking pitfalls for foundations to avoid.


The foundation world is plagued with a number of inherent challenges that inhibit our ability to do our best work: our own hubris, our lack of proximity to the people we support, the structures that perpetuate the very inequity we intend to address. As funders committed to social justice and equity, these issues may feel insurmountable and out of our control, but we must remember that we do have control over how we practice as funders.

At The Whitman Institute (TWI), we’ve found power in how we approach our relationships with grantees. For us, a deliberate, trust-based approach is an important component of liberating foundations from the structures that hold too many of us back.

Too often, as Vu Le points out, philanthropy is set up like the Hunger Games  —  with an uneven playing field of organizations fighting against each other to win any substantial funding. But instead of the Hollywood version where the winners are the underdogs, the winners in the nonprofit world are often those with bigger budgets, development staff, and that have already been vetted by other foundations.

However, a trust-based approach to philanthropy acknowledges grantees as true partners  —  not as supplicants that have to compete to prove their worth.

Read the full article about how trust can liberate philanthropy by Pia Infante from The Whitman Institute, via Justice Funders.