Tools & Resources to Shift Power to Communities
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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.
Foundations and nonprofits can do more good in the world, co-creating more positive outcomes and building community voice and power, when they regularly and deeply listen to the people and communities most affected by their decisions.
As listening through systematic feedback loops, participatory processes, and other methods has become more common in philanthropy, the question we most often hear from funders has shifted from:
We believe funder listening to shift power to communities:
Is not a one-time activity or exercise, but an ongoing process.
Listening well reflects a commitment to the five steps of a high-quality feedback loop, which includes closing the loop – circling back to those who shared their perspectives to let them know what you heard and how you are planning to respond.
Is grounded in relationships and partnership.
Research from our learning partner, ORS Impact, suggests that listening processes that are most effective at advancing equity and shifting power involve being in relationship and partnership throughout the process – from framing the initial conversations to making meaning from what is heard to figuring out how to respond. These relationships are built on open channels of communication, mutual accountability, and authentic partnership, such as through shared decision making.
Engages an explicit power analysis.
Funders have historically exercised outsized power, and that dynamic, if not taken into account and addressed, can result in funder listening that is extractive, transactional, or just reinforcing what funders want to hear. Funders should approach listening with a clear understanding of how power currently operates and with specific attention to people and communities most impacted, but not typically consulted, by philanthropy and nonprofits.
Advances equity.
This kind of listening offers an opportunity for funders to hear from — and work shoulder-to-shoulder with — diverse communities and people who are experts in their own lives and have myriad assets and capabilities. It engages multiple forms of listening, such as systematic feedback loops, participatory processes, and community-driven practices, to make lasting systemic change.
How do funders listen to shift power to communities?
We created this menu to help answer that question. It features a variety of ways funders are listening across the many dimensions of their work, and offers resources to help you start or progress along your own listening journey. It’s designed to help you think broadly and systematically about how to listen in authentic, relational, and non-extractive ways.
The goal of the menu is to help you surface the most effective solutions; promote trust, accountability, and transparency; advance equity; and, ultimately, shift power to the people and communities most impacted by your work.
Explore 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.
Have questions about the menu or ideas for resources or examples?
Please reach out to our communications manager, Debra Blum.
This menu is a living document and we will continue to add to it as we collect new resources and examples. Please share your stories about, or experiences with, funder listening to shift power. We can’t wait to share more ideas and inspiration with the field.
Together, we can lift up listening!
