Foundations and nonprofits can do more good in the world, advancing equity and co-creating more positive outcomes, when they regularly and deeply listen to the people and communities most affected by their decisions.
As the listening and feedback field has grown more robust, the question we most often hear has shifted from:
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 is designed to help you think broadly and systematically about how to listen, respond, and shift power to the people and communities at the heart of your work.
As you review the examples, consider how your funding practices, operations, policies, and values either support or create barriers to listening well.
- Rick Moyers and Sabrina Hargrave
- via The Center for Effective Philanthropy
Real-life examples highlight practices and policies that value lived expertise, improve grantmaking, and advance equity.
About this collection
We offer a range of examples 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.
We encourage you to examine the menu with a willingness to turn kernels of ideas into something right for you. Remember to assess your organization’s understanding of the values, commitment level, and resources needed to implement high-quality listening and feedback practices. For more information on preparing to incorporate new practices or programs, check out our Participatory Philanthropy Toolkit’s Funder Readiness Assessment.
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...
ReWork the Bay, which focuses on economic equity and justice, transformed from doing work as a traditional funder collaborative to a collaborative led by what they call “proximate leaders” who serve on their Equity at Work Council (EWC). The EWC, a 17-member body of people with experience in economic justice,...
When ACT for Alexandria set out to establish a fund with a participatory-grantmaking approach, its first focus group with community leaders provided feedback that signaled the foundation did not yet have the track record or trust necessary for such an effort. In response, ACT slowed the fund’s timeline, prioritizing relationship...
The Community Foundation of the Central Blue Ridge (CFCBR) and Missouri Foundation for Health (MFH) each employ full-time community liaisons. Unlike program officers who deal with grants and grantees, these staff members have a mission to hear directly from and build relationships with the people their foundations seek to serve,...
The menu is full of examples from a range of sources, including our partner funders, media reports, and the report “Bridging the Gap: A Review of Foundation Listening Practices” by the consulting firm Ekouté.
But it is a living document and we will continue to add to it as new examples of funders listening well roll in. We encourage you to share your ideas and experiences with us. Have you seen funder listening in action?
