Listening at the heart of our work
More and more nonprofits are listening to the people and communities they serve and acting on what they hear. Through systematic feedback loops, participatory processes, and other ways of listening well, they are gathering vital insights and using them to improve programs and services — shifting power and becoming true partners with their communities.
It’s time for philanthropy to catch up.
Shared Insight works to improve philanthropy by inspiring and supporting nonprofits and funders to listen and respond to those most affected by their decisions. Our long-term goal is that communities and people most impacted, but typically least consulted, by philanthropy and nonprofits are better off in ways they define for themselves.
To get there, we believe funder listening to shift power must become an expected standard in philanthropy. Please go to Insights for Change to see what we mean by the terms listening, power, and listening to shift power.
For too long, philanthropy has operated in a top-down, hierarchical mode, isolated from the people and communities impacted by our decisions. We have privileged the voices and perspectives of the wealthy and powerful while further excluding or marginalizing communities from which wealth has been extracted or denied. Philanthropy’s institutions and ways of doing business are products of the same inequitable systems that our grantmaking is often intended to address.
By listening to shift power, philanthropy faces that reality head on. Rather than exercising power over the people and communities most affected by our decisions, funders can become true partners with communities to achieve positive change and the more just and equitable world we all seek.
What’s your next step toward listening?
To help make listening to shift power an expected standard at your organization and throughout the sector, we offer:
A suite of tools designed to inspire and inform your next moves, no matter where you are on your journey to add listening to the many dimensions of your work
An expanding library of news, viewpoints, case studies, evaluations, and research highlighting how philanthropy and nonprofits advance impact and equity by listening to the people at the heart of their work
Customized technical assistance, presentations, one-on-one coaching, and other supports to develop listening practices, including participatory grantmaking and other community-driven processes
Have you seen funder listening in action?
Share your stories to demonstrate what’s possible when grantmakers center the people and communities most impacted by their decisions.
