“Community Knows What Community Needs.” Inside CZI’s Participatory Grantmaking Program

“Community Knows What Community Needs.” Inside CZI’s Participatory Grantmaking Program

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative just wrapped up its second year of grantmaking led in part by community members. CZI’s Curtis Yancy explains the program’s mechanics, lessons learned and what’s next.

Read More

How Both ENDS Director Danielle Hirsch Is Using Philanthropy, Advocacy and More to Shift Power

How Both ENDS Director Danielle Hirsch Is Using Philanthropy, Advocacy and More to Shift Power

Both ENDS is a Netherlands-based organization that is challenging power dynamics in philanthropy in a number of ways. Director Danielle Hirsch talks about the group’s journey, its approach and why discomfort is a good thing.

Read More

IP Explainer: The Debate Over Who Should Make Funding Decisions

IP Explainer: The Debate Over Who Should Make Funding Decisions

Philanthropy is difficult to navigate. That’s why we’ve produced a series of explainers to demystify the basics. Today, we summarize a key debate happening in the sector: Who should decide what gets funded?

Read More

What Does it Look Like to Truly Shift Power in Philanthropy? Here Are 3 Real World Examples

What Does it Look Like to Truly Shift Power in Philanthropy? Here Are 3 Real World Examples

Deb Nelson of the Just Economy Institute recounts cases in which overturning funding models made a profound impact. In all of them, collaboration between people of different races, classes and generations were key.

Read More

A Major Funder Is Overhauling How it Backs Local Arts Groups. What Will That Mean for Grantees?

A Major Funder Is Overhauling How it Backs Local Arts Groups. What Will That Mean for Grantees?

Part of an ongoing effort to be more equitable, MacArthur is transitioning to a participatory regranting partnership to support Chicago’s small to midsized arts organizations. How will grantees be impacted?

Read More

How the Brooklyn Community Foundation Brings Grantmaking to the People

How the Brooklyn Community Foundation Brings Grantmaking to the People

Interest in participatory grantmaking has grown over time, but few have embraced it like the Brooklyn Community Foundation. Here’s a look at how BCF centers community decision-makers in its elder funding and elsewhere.

Read More

Imagining a World Where Philanthropy Is Obsolete: Conversations on the Future of the Sector

Imagining a World Where Philanthropy Is Obsolete: Conversations on the Future of the Sector

How does philanthropy need to change to meet the moment? How can funders envision a better future? These questions and more were the subject of a recent conference challenging the status quo of finance and giving.

Read More

Seven Questions with Helen Mountford, President and CEO of ClimateWorks Foundation

Seven Questions with Helen Mountford, President and CEO of ClimateWorks Foundation

The international climate intermediary fund has a new leader who envisions some “shifts and accelerations” for the grantmaker. We spoke with her about those plans and more.

Read More

What Happens When Environmental Movement Leaders Make Funding Decisions?

What Happens When Environmental Movement Leaders Make Funding Decisions?

One year in, participatory grantmaking project Mosaic offers insights into what it looks like when environmental groups direct funding. Leaders point to powerful collaborative projects and new movement infrastructure.

Read More

Should Philanthropic Advisors Have a Version of Fiduciary Duty to Donors?

Should Philanthropic Advisors Have a Version of Fiduciary Duty to Donors?

Investment advisors are ethically and legally required to place clients’ interests ahead of their own. Michael E. Hartmann of the Center for Strategic Giving asks whether philanthropic staff and advisors should have a similar duty.

Read More

Answering the Call: One Foundation’s Approach to Shifting Power and Funding Racial Justice

Answering the Call: One Foundation’s Approach to Shifting Power and Funding Racial Justice

Since 2020, philanthropy has had to reckon with historic uprisings demanding racial justice. In this guest opinion, the Pink House Foundation’s leadership share how they responded, including handing over decision-making power.

Read More

Seeking Better Ways to Give, an Arts Funder Asked Grantees to Award Funding to Their Peers

Seeking Better Ways to Give, an Arts Funder Asked Grantees to Award Funding to Their Peers

New York City-based Art Matters piloted a program in which previous grant recipients acted as grantmakers. Director Abbey Williams explains why it was needed and what other funders can learn from their experience.

Read More

Three Lessons for Funders Exploring Participatory Decision-Making

Three Lessons for Funders Exploring Participatory Decision-Making

The Reinvention Lab and NewSchools Venture Fund piloted a program earlier this year to test what happens when funding decisions are made by people from the communities they serve. Leaders report back on their findings.

Read More

“Have All Voices Be Heard.” Inside a Community Foundation's Bold Participatory Grantmaking Effort

“Have All Voices Be Heard.” Inside a Community Foundation's Bold Participatory Grantmaking Effort

In 2018, the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving launched an ambitious participatory grantmaking program—29 funds in 29 towns. With money starting to flow, a foundation staffer talks lessons learned and what comes next.

Read More

We Set Out to Share Power Through Participatory Grantmaking in Africa. Here’s What We Learned

We Set Out to Share Power Through Participatory Grantmaking in Africa. Here’s What We Learned

Global philanthropy remains largely an elitist, top-down process. In this guest post, leaders from two human rights groups share what they learned from a joint participatory grantmaking effort in Sierra Leone.

Read More

How an International Women’s Fund Became the World’s Largest Participatory Grantmaker

How an International Women’s Fund Became the World’s Largest Participatory Grantmaker

In 2021, Mama Cash became the world’s largest fully participatory grantmaker. We check in with grants manager Coco Jervis about how the funder came to embrace a practice that disrupts entrenched power dynamics.

Read More

Really Giving: Four Ways to Democratize Philanthropy

Really Giving: Four Ways to Democratize Philanthropy

Nonprofit leader Alissa Quart recently facilitated a convening that addressed the obstacles preventing creators from securing funding. Here, she outlines a list of actions participants came up with to make philanthropy a more collective process.

Read More

An Inside Look Into a Music Funder’s Democratized Grantmaking Process

IP’s Mike Scutari recently observed the Lewis Prize for Music’s participatory grantmaking process. He reports on the experience and checks in with panelists and leadership on how arts funders can best democratize their grantmaking.

Read More

Truly Shifting Philanthropy's Power Dynamics Requires New Structures for Giving

Truly Shifting Philanthropy's Power Dynamics Requires New Structures for Giving

To overcome structural racism and power imbalances in philanthropy, the sector must radically rethink its grantmaking processes. Donna Daniels and Kelley Buhles of RSF Social Finance offer three strategies for doing so.

Read More

Program Staff Support Participatory Practices, but Foundations Still Only Go So Far

Program Staff Support Participatory Practices, but Foundations Still Only Go So Far

Participants in IP’s survey of program staff are supportive of participatory practices like soliciting input from end beneficiaries. Their foundations and leadership, however, still seem to be resistant to certain approaches.

Read More