1. Community engagement and organizing is an iterative process, balancing a series of actions to move the community forward and produce tangible results. By taking the time to build relationships with grantees, funders can better anticipate real-time community dynamics and tailor support and expectations accordingly, especially if their work focuses on vulnerable populations.
  2. Evaluating community-driven initiatives may require nontraditional frameworks. Few practitioners in the community engagement and organizing space are trained to design and evaluate multi-collaborative initiatives, and many struggle to describe impact in a way that resonates with funders. Language and methodology barriers can arise for grassroots professionals who want funders to understand impact beyond numbers. Funders should be open to alternative ways to define success and should consider supporting grantee evaluation capacity.
  3. Community engagement and organizing are equity in motion. Grassroots practitioners often come from communities of color or other disenfranchised backgrounds. Funding approaches that use resident-driven strategies help ensure that equity is at the forefront.
  4. Race and power dynamics are real in philanthropy. Philanthropic leadership does not often reflect the race or socioeconomic status of the people they seek to serve. In funding disenfranchised communities, it is important for funders to explicitly acknowledge the role of race and class and create opportunities to address it institutionally.

Read the full article on lessons learned as a community organizer by Erica Chambers at Grantmakers In Health