This is an excerpt from the free guide Supporting Community Based Organizations (CBOs) through Your Collective Giving Group.The full guide makes the case for funding CBOs, as well as provides best practices and tips for how collective giving groups can root their grantmaking strategy in community and trust. Download it for free.

Supporting CBOs is a place-based strategy that your collective giving group can leverage. Research shows 47% of giving circles make grants within the same city, town, or county that they live. Once you know where to find CBOs, the next steps are selecting and giving to organizations. In this section, we will explore best practices in selecting grantee partners, giving to CBOs, and following up with those that you have given to.

Generally it is best practice to be:

  • Transparent - Be clear about your processes
  • Reliable - Say what you mean
  • Open to feedback - Listen to your members and CBOs you give to
  • Open to learning and shifting practices - Be aware of practices that are harmful or no
  • longer working

Tip: You can learn more about best practices for giving in many of our resources. Check out our resources on giving beyond the dollar, trust-based philanthropy, and more in our library!

Before You Give

Be Mindful of Any Application Process

For many longer form applications, it can take many hours of writing and editing by an executive director or development staff at a CBO. Particularly if you are giving smaller grants this could mean a lot of work for very little pay off, placing undue burden on CBO staff.

Instead, we recommend a model called “secret philanthropist” where your members will nominate groups and do deep research on each nominated CBO. This places the onus on collective givers to learn about the groups and saves CBO staff time.

Tip: If you still decide to have an application process for your gift, consider a variety of options for submission such as video, written, or verbal/phone options. Consider limiting yourself to just three questions and focus them on what you can’t tell from researching the nonprofit (e.g. in an annual report or on their website). Finally, offer support to groups who are interested in filling out the application.

Checking Bias During Your Review Process

Everyone has biases. While unconscious and sometimes conscious bias is inevitable, there are steps your collective giving group can take to limit bias and not replicate the bad habits of institutional philanthropy!

The first step in preventing bias is acknowledging and confronting possible biases your collective giving group may hold. You can learn more about racial bias in your giving process in our resource on embedding racial equity into your giving practice here.

Do not assume that a poorly developed webpage or lack of social media presence means that the organization you are considering has limited impact. As mentioned before, many CBOs have limited staff and they may not have a paid designer to create a polished brand, or website, or a staff member dedicated to regularly posting on social media.

Consider designing a matrix or score sheet when selecting which organization to give to. This ensures you are assessing each CBO with the same priorities and will limit selecting a grantee partner based on “vibes” alone. It also can be shared with organizations that have not been selected to receive a gift as feedback. Some considerations could be: budget, if they are working in an area that historically is underfunded, or if they are led by an executive director/CEO of a historically underfunded identity, etc.

Expand who has a voice in the decision-making process. Can past grantees offer their input? What about the community directly impacted by the funds you are giving? Diversifying the members in your collective giving group will diversify perspectives which will limit bias.

Train your members who are reviewing applications to check their biases. This could include: an unconscious bias assessment, anti-racism trainings, trainings on ableism, or sharing resources like this on how to give and give well!

When You Give

Give Beyond the Dollar

The 5Ts of Philanthropy — Time, Talent, Treasure, Testimony, and Ties — support the success of CBOs. When giving to a CBO, consider donating beyond your “treasure.” Find new innovative ways to support the causes you care about. You can learn other best practices and ways to give in our guide here.

Tip: Make a map of skills your members can offer the groups you support. This could include pro-bono graphic design, legal advice, etc. 

Examples of the 5T’s in Action

  • Time 
    • Volunteering at local CBOs
    • Attending community events organized by the CBO
  • Talent
    • Offering pro bono professional services to the CBO for capacity building
    • Skilled volunteering (for example a former teacher tutoring youth in CBOs program)
  • Treasure
    • Checks
    • Stocks
    • Car or Home
    • Writing into your will
  • Testimony
    • Supporting legislation the CBO endorses
    • Sharing quotes about the CBOs impact that they can share publicly or with other funders
  • Ties
    • Sharing more about the CBO to your friends and family
    • Connecting CBO staff with professional ties you have to other funders

Responsive, adaptive, non-monetary support bolsters leadership, capacity, and organizational health. This is especially critical for organizations that have historically gone without the same access to networks or level of support than their more established peers.

Give Based on Budget

If you are exclusively giving to 501(c)(3) organizations in the U.S., you can type and organization’s name and the phrase “990” in a search engine to find most organizational budgets. You can also use sites like ProPublica and Candid.

Remember

  • If you donating to groups other than 501(c)(3) organizations it may not be possible to find their budget, but it is also highly likely they have a small budget
  • Many CBOs may not have their own 501(c)(3) nonprofit tax status, but are “fiscally sponsored” by a nonprofit who does. Usually this indicates that the organization either has a small budget or may be a newer organization. Being fiscally sponsored has no bearing on the level of impact, community connection, or sophistication of the organization.
  • If your group donates to individuals, projects, or entities other than 501(c)(3) nonprofits, it may not be possible to find budget information online. It is also highly likely they have a small budget.
  • Note: If an organization has filed a 990-N, this means they have a budget of less than $50,000 and they are not required to provide audited financials to the IRS.

Give Multi-year, Unrestricted Gifts

The work of nonprofits is long-term and unpredictable. Multi-year, unrestricted funding gives grantees the flexibility to assess and determine where grant dollars are most needed, and allows for innovation, emergent action, and sustainability. This enables your circle to deepen your relationship to the broader community.

Tip: Although one major practice of trust-based philanthropy is providing multi-year, unrestricted grants, it requires a budget structure and decision-making process. First and foremost, take stock of what is possible within your giving circle and decide how much you are willing to change within your current structure.

One solution would be to shift your funding timeline. Is it possible to give to the same organizations two years in a row instead of picking a new grantee partner each year? If you give multiple grants, what would it look like to cycle those grants? For example, if you give two grants every year could you have both on a two-year cycle so your giving circle selects a new organization each year while also giving a second grant to the other organization selected?

If you find you cannot extend your giving timeline, commit to providing support beyond the check, such as making introductions to other funders or donors, or offering to write a letter of recommendation to help them access other institutional support. This can be especially helpful for smaller groups that do not have a history of receiving foundation grants, which is often a major barrier to accessing institutional funding.

Take Risks and Redefine Failure

Explore the spaces and places that make your collective giving group uncomfortable about giving to a CBO. Is it a fear of “failure?” Discuss how you might support a grassroots group to best be set up for success.

After You Give

Alternatives to Reporting

Rather than asking CBOs you’ve supported to share a custom report back of their successes and challenges, consider thanking them for all the work they have done! Brief “thank you how else can we support you?” calls are a great way to learn more about the work the CBO you’ve supported has done, while also releasing the pressure of a formal report. If helpful to the CBO, see their work in action and increase the impact of your donation by volunteering with the CBO.

If You Ask for a Report

Make sure this is easy for the CBOs to achieve and not duplicating labor. Consider asking them to share their annual reports or a write up they’ve given to other funders. Additionally, offer multiple format options like video submissions, written reports, slide decks, and/or voice recordings.

Remember: Impact is more than just numbers. What are the qualitative ways that your grantee partners can highlight impact? Participant quotes, materials produced, etc. are all examples of impact that are difficult to quantify in numbers alone.

Invite Grantee Partners to Join Your Group

Bring the voices of CBO leaders into your collective giving group by inviting them to join after giving them a grant. Extend the offer not only to CBO staff, but also their members. This can both increase the diversity of your circle and bring more community members’ voices into your group.

Innovative Idea: Consider giving a free or reduced membership to those from the CBO who decide to join you. This can give new community members the opportunity to learn more about your collective giving group before fully committing.

Ask for Feedback from the CBOs

The best way to improve your grantmaking, address inequities, and understand what may be cumbersome or inaccessible to groups you hope to support is by asking feedback on your process. Then implement changes to address any issues raised by the CBOs.

Tip: Be sure to respect people’s time and compensate appropriately.

Download the full guide from Philanthropy Together