Folly #22: Great Grantmaking

Celebrating funders who are doing it right.

Funder Follies was born from frustration about the demands that well-intentioned funders place on under-resourced nonprofits.

I live not far from Silicon Valley, home of let’s fund lots of crazy ideas in the hope that some of them will work. And some do, but most fail. Nonprofits do really hard work. They solve crazy big problems. And it makes sense that funders should take risks with their philanthropic dollars in the same way that start-up investors do. But most don’t. They put lots of process and restriction on grants. And it’s … so frustrating.

But some funders, really do have it right. And today I sing their praises.

Trust-Based Philanthropy

Last week, I attended a town hall discussion hosted by the Walter & Elise Haas Fund. The meeting was to announce their intention to move towards six grantmaking practices that, together, contribute to a more just and equitable nonprofit sector:

1. Give multi-year, unrestricted funding. Anna Bruni Sabhaney had some great things to say about this in an earlier interview.

2. Funders do the homework of vetting grantees. Both Anna (above) and William Lutz gave their perspectives on how onerous it is for the nonprofit to educate the funder. Walter & Elisa Haas Fund says their staff take the initiative to stay informed. They:

   • Subscribe to the nonprofits’ newsletters and review their websites,

   • Follow nonprofits’ social media,

   • Include phone and email contact in their online bios to be more responsive to grantees’ questions,

   • Spend time with funder peers to learn from them about the issues that nonprofits face (and take responsibility for sharing their own learnings with other funders), and

   • Consider other options, like hosting regular office hours, to make it easier for grantees to communicate and share suggestions.

3. Simplify reports and applications. The Silicon Valley Community Foundation has a new strategic plan that includes centering grantees’ voices in critical conversations. One example: last year they piloted verbal reports where small groups of like-focused nonprofits debrief together, and a SVCF staff member captures notes and writes the report. Brilliant! I also admire the Akonadi Foundation for their clear guidelines and simple application – I share their 4-question proposal narrative in my grantwriting class as an example of what I wish all funders would do.

4. Be transparent and responsive. I loved hearing the Haas Fund staff, including the executive director, respond to questions during their town hall with “We don’t totally know. We are trying something that’s new for us.” The Weingart Foundation publishes grantee feedback on their website, and encourages contact with program staff.

5. Solicit and act on feedback. In Haas’ new philosophy, this sounds like “How would you ask us to be accountable to you?” and “We ask because we don’t take our relationship with you lightly… if it’s valuable to you, please let us know.”

6. Also offer non-monetary support that bolsters leadership, capacity, and organizational health. Haas staff talked about coming from a place of grantmaker and seeking to transition into meaningful partnership with community members, whether or not they are grantees.

In an earlier interview, Nathan Chappell said it nicely: Trust is the currency of the nonprofit sector.

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Know of other foundations who really have it right? Please share!

And I hope you’ll pass this along to others. I believe that, together, we can get more funders changing their grantmaking in the spirit of Trust-Based Philanthropy.