This is the fourth and final in a series of posts contributed by the Feedback Incentives Learning Group, a group of funders convened by Feedback Labs that are dedicated to encouraging peer funders to listen to the people most harmed by the systems and structures they seek to change. In this blog series, learning group members share advice for how grantmaking staff can listen and respond to the people who are most impacted by their work.

I started my role at Missouri Foundation for Health 12 years ago as a traditional program officer. Even then, after a long history of working for nonprofits, I always thought the title program officer was confusing. It made me think of a loan officer controlling money and decisions, or a police officer who was there to serve and protect, but also was in a position of power.

Last week, a fellow member of the Feedback incentives Learning Group discussed how program officers can make space for listening within the confines of their existing roles in this blog. These are important steps, and for many, may be the most accessible way to incorporate more effective listening, trust-building, and power-sharing into their work as program officers. But if the confines of our roles as program officers don’t allow us to listen well, they need to change. And if our own internal roles and structures aren’t in our control as grantmakers, how can we claim to be trying to change the world? This blog is about reimagining the roles we play to make room for listening.

At Missouri Foundation for Health (MFH) we have been doing just that — internally reimagining our roles to make more space for relationship building, listening, authentically engaging with communities, and exploring new ways of working. These shifts have been prompted by tough questions we’ve had to ask ourselves:

  • How are we ever going to be effective at addressing root causes of health inequities through systems change if we are not willing to change our own internal systems?
  • How do we build real relationships if we are not willing to be honest and transparent about our own faults, learnings, and willingness to grow?
  •  How do we serve and collaborate with communities across Missouri if we are not actively engaged with, living in, learning from, and involving community members?

In our reflection, we acknowledged that the traditional program officer did not fit the mission, values, or vision of the Foundation. As MFH evolved, so did our titles and positions. We realized that for us to do our work well, really engage with community, and to achieve health equity we needed to do our own internal reorganization. Two things we have done thus far are:

  • Changing Job Descriptions
  • Creating New Positions

Read the full article about reimagining the program officer role by Sarah Moody at The Center for Effective Philanthropy.