Tools & Resources to Shift Power
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Looking at your role/function within your foundation.
What are listening practices that can shift power?
Assess how you are listening through a set of reflection questions.
Engaging in other large-scale listening activities
For funders committed to shifting power to, and sharing power with, those most impacted by their work, participation is key. Participatory approaches in philanthropy center the leadership, wisdom, and voices of communities. They shift power from philanthropy’s traditional power centers (i.e., the donors and institutions that control the money) to the people and communities directly affected by the issues being addressed.
Resources to shift power
- Nichole June Maher
- Inatai Foundation
- Katy Love
- Fund for Shared Insight
Get inspired by what other funders are working on
A partnership between the City of Philadelphia and the Scattergood Foundation, the Overdose Prevention and Community Healing Fund uses national opioid settlement money to address the harms of the opioid epidemic. As one of the foundation’s three “Participatory Funds,” the Prevention Fund is designed to involve impacted residents in decision making, such as through a Community Advisory Committee that helps set grantmaking strategy. A committee member’s experience of having lost a loved one to overdose led the group to reframe the fund’s grant focus areas to elevate needs around community and family healing.
In addition to the advisory committee, Community Granting Groups (CGG) in each of the fund’s neighborhoods of focus review applications and make selections for awards through a facilitated participatory process. CGG members, most of whom have been in recovery and/or have cared for a loved one in addiction, are careful not to evaluate grant applications based on grammar, spelling, or writing style, but rather on the organization’s impact. Members also share their personal experiences with organizations, as well as the reputation that organizations have in the community. Caitlin O’Brien, Scattergood’s director of learning and community impact, says this process helps identify organizations that are deeply rooted in their communities, and lifts up grassroots groups that do not have access to professional grant writers and other resources, which often causes them to be overlooked by traditional philanthropy.
“Ultimately money is power,” says O’Brien, “so we are working to move power into the hands of people who are most impacted by how these dollars get spent .”
The Katz Amsterdam Foundation collaborated with global social impact firm FSG and representatives from seven mountain resort communities to create a shared measurement framework with joint indicators for mental health and well-being. Previously, grantees had shared that key data on mental health and community well-being were unavailable for many mountain resort communities, making it difficult to measure their impact or develop programs that truly addressed community needs. Informed by community surveys conducted every other year, the data is now available through a public-facing dashboard in English and Spanish. Grantees have leveraged this data for strategic decision-making, targeting programs for specific sub-populations, securing additional funding, and collaborating effectively across regions.
As a new health conversion foundation, Natrona Collective Health Trust wanted to create a philanthropic institution centered on the belief that the community owns and informs their work. They partnered with global social impact firm FSG on a strategic planning process that engaged over 50 community members and leaders, particularly members of historically marginalized communities. Hearing from community members brought local and national data on health disparities to life. For example, many were surprised to learn that it could take someone hours to pick up a prescription from the pharmacy using public transportation.
Based on the data and what they heard from the community, the foundation decided to focus its work on improving behavioral health in early childhood and adolescence. They also have created a program advisory committee composed of paid community members and work with youth on participatory grantmaking efforts.
Charles Schwab Bank Charles Schwab Bank, which sponsors grantees to participate in the client-feedback survey program Listen4Good and pays additional grant money to cover the staff time associated with participation, also supports the nonprofits to collaborate in their feedback work and share key learnings with each other and with Schwab Bank.
For example, the bank has partnered with Communities Foundation of Texas and United Way of Tarrant County to sponsor a cohort of five human services nonprofits in the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) area to participate in Listen4Good’s capacity building program and learning community. The DFW community convened five times throughout the 18-month program, covering topics including survey design, strategic planning data, and feedback system sustainability.
Elaina Mulé, community development at Schwab Bank, writes that the learning community allowed the bank “to gain new insights on community needs while developing deeper relationships with our grantees.”
The Colorado Health Foundation’s annual survey of nearly 3,000 Coloradans helps shape strategy. In recent years, residents have identified the rising cost of living, the cost of housing, and homelessness as the most serious problems facing the state. In response to those results and other input from community, the foundation added a new priority area, Economic Opportunity. And it is relying on additional listening efforts, such as interviews and focus groups and its staff’s continued community engagement, to inform its work in that area.
Says Tracey Stewart, a senior program officer: The survey data, “point us in a certain direction and then we start knocking on the doors of the people we need to meet to understand, plan, and act.”
Dive into this menu to spark the changes you want to see.
Mix and match to find the examples, resources, and reflections best suited to help you and your organization shift power to the people and communities at the heart of your work.
About this collection
We know that you and other funders are moving toward listening and participatory practices at different rates and from different starting points and perspectives. We also know that shifting power is not easy work and requires a strong internal commitment and continuous learning. It’s best to be clear on your organization’s motivations, capabilities, and goals. And as you engage with this menu, consider your funding practices, operations, policies, and values — and then where change will best serve your foundation and the people and communities you seek to serve.
We offer a range of examples and resources because there are no one-size-fits-all solutions; and we share them in a menu format so you can pick and choose what’s interesting or relevant to you. We don’t rank the practices or the organizations employing them or intend to signal that any featured funder has listening figured out or listens well across the board. Each example represents only a moment in time — a practice one of your peers told us (or an intermediary) about, and that we hope might inspire you to enhance your own listening work.
Similarly, we do not rank the recommended resources, though we did select them based on a set of criteria, including:
- We and/or our partners have personally used the resource and find it is high-quality, promotes impact, and aligns with our power analysis
- The resource is widely and publicly available (not just to paid members) and, ideally, accessible to people with disabilities
- The resource is relevant to, and includes applicable lessons for, a variety of types of funders
- The resource is as evergreen as possible
New resources are always coming online. We hope that the ones we've included are helpful while also sparking your curiosity and helping you forge an ongoing relationship with the creators and other aligned efforts.
We encourage you to examine the menu’s resources and examples with a willingness to turn kernels of ideas into something right for you. We also hope you spend time on the reflection questions, which will help you and your organization better understand and prepare for what it means to listen to shift power. Checking out our Participatory Philanthropy Toolkit’s Funder Readiness Assessment will also help prepare you for changes in your priorities and practices.
We are always looking to add more funder listening examples and more resources. Please take a few minutes to share your stories and ideas on our Lift Up Listening online form.
Have questions about the menu or ideas for resources or examples?
Please reach out to our communications manager, Debra Blum.
Dive into this menu to spark the changes you want to see.
Mix and match to find the examples, resources, and reflections best suited to help you and your organization shift power to the people and communities at the heart of your work.
About this collection
We know that you and other funders are moving toward listening and participatory practices at different rates and from different starting points and perspectives. We also know that shifting power is not easy work and requires a strong internal commitment and continuous learning. It’s best to be clear on your organization’s motivations, capabilities, and goals. And as you engage with this menu, consider your funding practices, operations, policies, and values — and then where change will best serve your foundation and the people and communities you seek to serve.
We offer a range of examples and resources because there are no one-size-fits-all solutions; and we share them in a menu format so you can pick and choose what’s interesting or relevant to you. We don’t rank the practices or the organizations employing them or intend to signal that any featured funder has listening figured out or listens well across the board. Each example represents only a moment in time — a practice one of your peers told us (or an intermediary) about, and that we hope might inspire you to enhance your own listening work.
Similarly, we do not rank the recommended resources, though we did select them based on a set of criteria, including:
- We and/or our partners have personally used the resource and find it is high-quality, promotes impact, and aligns with our power analysis
- The resource is widely and publicly available (not just to paid members) and, ideally, accessible to people with disabilities
- The resource is relevant to, and includes applicable lessons for, a variety of types of funders
- The resource is as evergreen as possible
New resources are always coming online. We hope that the ones we've included are helpful while also sparking your curiosity and helping you forge an ongoing relationship with the creators and other aligned efforts.
We encourage you to examine the menu’s resources and examples with a willingness to turn kernels of ideas into something right for you. We also hope you spend time on the reflection questions, which will help you and your organization better understand and prepare for what it means to listen to shift power. Checking out our Participatory Philanthropy Toolkit’s Funder Readiness Assessment will also help prepare you for changes in your priorities and practices.
We are always looking to add more funder listening examples and more resources. Please take a few minutes to share your stories and ideas on our Lift Up Listening online form.
Have questions about the menu or ideas for resources or examples?
Please reach out to our communications manager, Debra Blum.
