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Trust Between Funders and Grantees Will Bring About Impact

Philanthropy Daily Sep 13, 2018
This article is deemed a must-read by one or more of our expert collaborators.
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Strengthening Funder–Grantee Relationships Will Bring About Impact Philanthropy-giving compass
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Giving Compass’ Take:

• This article from Philanthropy Daily explores the need for stronger relationships between grantmakers and grantees: It’s all about trusting each other.

• While metrics are important in impact philanthropy, we can’t forget about the human element in nonprofit work and the importance of active listening in our giving journeys.

• This dynamic must apply across generations, which is why sharing power with young people is essential. 


We typically don’t default to trusting those we don’t know, especially when we find it so difficult to trust well those we do. So it shouldn’t surprise us when the Center for Effective Philanthropy reports that one of the central problems in modern philanthropy is a “pervasive lack of trust” between foundations and grant recipients. This lack of trust is largely the result of a knowledge deficit, revealed in grantees’ complaint that those offering the grants need to learn to defer to those who live in, know, and understand a region.

People who get into the nonprofit sector typically do so because they are trying to promote, defend, enrich, or maintain something they love, and these loves form the backbone of any worthwhile enterprise.

Funders, on the other hand, may or may not have the same love, and the natural power and dependency imbalance of giver-recipient relationships may quickly skew operations. The funders would have a tendency to either dictate practices that run contrary to the demands of love, or insist on “measurables and metrics” that take love out of the equation.

The authors of the report note that “in the drive toward measurement and metrics, talking about relationship building as a measure of impact may seem suspect.” As I argued in a prior piece at Philanthropy Daily, The Problem With Measurable Impact, metrics are often used to run a shortcut around relationships, but do so poorly.


If you are looking for more articles and resources for Impact Philanthropy, take a look at these Giving Compass selections related to impact giving and Impact Philanthropy.

  • This article is deemed a must-read by one or more of our expert collaborators.
    Click here for more.
    The High-Impact Giving Strategy for 2017? Love

    Reflecting on bits of wisdom to ground what will be my eighteenth year in the philanthropic sector, I didn’t want to defer to words such as strategy, impact, risk, and collaboration, which frame most conversations in our workplaces. But I was again drawn to the thousands of colorful locks of the Pont de l’Archevêché, and was reminded of why I initially came to this work. Love. Of justice, access, equity, and safety for all humankind. We have a crisis in philanthropy. And I use the word crisis on purpose; love of humankind is the foundation upon which a culture (not the institutions) of philanthropy was birthed and later institutionalized. Some of us came to this work for the wrong reasons to begin with; many have forgotten our initial motivation. Most of us are not acting with any sense of urgency, or consistently reflecting on the fact that the problems we’ve committed to tackling involve real human beings. Rather than sharing tips or ideas to inform your giving during 2017, I ask you simply to remember that philanthropy means enacting love of humankind. The motivation for all we do in philanthropy should begin and end with love. It truly is that simple. Because from love flows trust, patience, fearlessness, open conversation, and true collaboration, the characteristics not-for-profit organizations and communities needs to thrive and succeed. Including our own institutions in philanthropy. As you, your family, or your staff reflect on and think deeply about strategy, evaluation, impact, and learning, begin with a foundation of love. Read the source article at medium.com


Any nonprofit organization is an immensely complex collection of complex persons trying to work together in a complex situation. Navigating that complexity requires an intimacy of knowing that donors rarely possess (although counter examples might be found in education and the arts). One should give modestly, not in dollars but in demands. The donor should start by yielding to the grantee. As one recipient put it: “Being of and around wealth does not a deep-community-knowledge make. Humility yields many, many great things.”

 

The report highlights the conduct of particularly good program officers whose common trait was “deference.” They didn’t assume they knew the organization’s needs better than those running the organization. They listened carefully. They let clients know that funding was not to be purchased by nonprofits adjusting their missions or practices to pander to the foundation.

In other words, good foundations are modest foundations.

Read the full article about strengthening relationships for impact philanthropy by Jeff Polet at Philanthropy Daily.

 

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