New Grants Support Community of Practice to Promote Funder Listening

On July 23, Fund for Shared Insight’s core funders approved grants totaling $1.25-million over two years to seven philanthropy-support organizations to develop, disseminate, and champion toolkits and guides to help foundations build feedback and listening practices that reflect and advance equity.

The seven organizations, along with members of the Shared Insight team and Feedback Labs, will form a community of practice to promote a common understanding of how equity, diversity, and inclusion are inextricably linked to high-quality feedback and listening. Through the community of practice, participants will share learning, collaborate on the development of tools and guides, and ensure that their individual efforts are complementary and mutually reinforcing.

The seven organizations participating in the community of practice are:

This new community of practice is central to achieving the outcomes described in Fund for Shared Insight’s Theory of Change. Those include increasing the number of funders that incorporate into their own work the perspectives of the people and communities they seek to help, and making high-quality feedback and listening practices, which by definition must reflect equity, diversity, and inclusion principles, an expected standard among foundations and nonprofits.