At GreenLight Fund, we connect local communities with organizations that address identified barriers through a collaborative, community-centered process. In 14 cities nationwide, we partner with local leaders and experts, prioritize key unmet community needs, and foster the scaling of proven innovative solutions (nonprofit organizations) to each city to tackle those needs with measurable impact. In Kansas City, we launched a process to further elevate community voice in our work and our decision-making process.
As with other GreenLight Fund sites, we have long relied on our Selection Advisory Council (SAC), a group of for-profit and nonprofit leaders, philanthropists, and community leaders, who serve as thought partners to help decide which organizations receive investments from us. In 2020, our Kansas City team sought to strengthen our commitment to community voice by reaching out more directly to residents who are often excluded from decision-making processes that directly impact their lives.
Uncovering local voices
In Kansas City, our community engagement process for each investment cycle begins with a listening campaign. We work with community-based organizations to host focus groups, leveraging the trust between these nonprofits and their clients to create a safe space where clients feel comfortable engaging with us. These discussions are guided by broad, open-ended questions with small prompts to explore specific topics such as food insecurity or affordable housing. Naturally, the conversations evolve as participants build off each other’s experiences and on what resonates for them. At the end of each session, we provide participants with gift cards equal to a market rate compensation for their time.
As our community engagement initiative grew, we began to notice people who stood out in group discussions – whether it was how they offered supportive advice to others or spoke candidly about their personal experiences. We were inspired to create more opportunities for these folks to contribute further. This sparked the idea for our Community Consultants program.
No answer is wrong. Good, bad, ugly. Everything helps move the work forward. Your input [as a community consultant] can help be a part of the fix.
After identifying the necessary financial and capacity resources for an expanded initiative, we initially invited eight focus group participants, selected for their proximity to our focus areas, to develop a new group we called Community Consultants. This group was brought on to join our already established SAC. As part of the first cohort, we formalized their role with a contract that outlined their responsibilities and time commitments, typically lasting 9-12 months for each investment cycle. The contract also emphasized the consultants’ autonomy to choose which meetings and events they attend, allowing them to engage based on their availability and interests. To ensure fair and consistent compensation, we decided on a monthly pay schedule, with consultants paid hourly for every meeting, event, and project they complete. Once an agreement is signed, we onboard each consultant, sharing the upcoming schedule and addressing any questions or concerns.
Ten Community Consultants have now been actively involved in our last three investment selections. They attend focus groups discussing community issues and unmet needs, initial meetings with potential portfolio organizations, site visit meetings with finalist organizations, and SAC meetings. In preparation for meetings with leaders from organizations under consideration, we provide additional resources to the consultants, including briefs and packets about each organization, giving them ample time to review materials. Additionally, they complete post-investment cycle reflection activities and participate in case studies documenting their experience.
Calling out true community needs
While GreenLight makes the final investment decisions, the guidance and insights from the SAC and the experiences from the consultants help us to visualize the direct efforts of potential investments and prioritize sustainable initiatives that address true community needs.
In one instance, when we were considering a potential investee, a Community Consultant who had experience receiving SNAP benefits suggested the organization add a feature to its website, simplifying reenrollment in public benefits. In response, the organization included in its final proposal for the Kansas City market a potential web-based reenrollment support tool, demonstrating a commitment to being responsive and user-centric, qualities that helped us decide to fund the organization.
The work I’ve done as a consultant motivates me to continue contributing to the progress of the community in Kansas City and helps to address all possible needs
In evaluating another finalist organization, a consultant living in a senior community asked to interview one of the organization’s contracted delivery drivers. The consultant was responding to feedback from fellow residents about the behavior of delivery drivers in their neighborhood and how this organization’s drivers might differ from others. Specifically, residents mentioned that delivery workers can be impatient with them, especially if they are unfamiliar with using a phone app to track their packages. The consultants had an insightful meeting with the driver, revealing a strong alignment between the driver’s values and the organization’s mission of client dignity. By advocating for true community needs, the consultant was able to bring to light the organization’s commitment to respectful and accessible service, which helped influence our funding decision.
Opportunities for consultants
As we saw the value our consultants added to our investment decision-making process, we wanted to ensure they also benefited from their participation. We looked for ways to create more opportunities to recognize their commitment and leadership potential and increase their responsibility and exposure to a broad range of engagement roles.
When the consultants expressed interest in talking to program leaders and participants from finalist portfolio organizations to better understand the organizations’ impact, we expanded their role to allow them to directly engage with representatives, collaborating on questions and co-facilitating meetings. Last summer, we invited the consultants to co-facilitate a community engagement learning series with us. In this role, they led parts of the meetings with community members and engaged with participants, creating a welcoming environment for the focus groups. We hosted debrief sessions with the consultants so that they would have a chance to provide feedback about their experience and to make necessary adjustments to the facilitation process.
Our community engagement philosophy remains at the forefront of our investment strategy and how we support our Community Consultants, ensuring we are actively listening and learning from our community members. This work has been instrumental in helping us understand both our limitations as funders and the opportunities to build stronger and more meaningful connections in the communities where we work. More importantly, we believe that collaboration with our Community Consultants enables us to make better investments, bringing organizations to Kansas City that align with the evolving needs of our community. As one consultant puts it: “Knowing how to listen [allows] you to realize there are more solutions to difficult problems.”
GreenLight Fund Kansas City: Learnings from Our Community Consultants Program
Engage Early: Initially, we recruited Community Consultants six months into our investment cycle. This required us to spend considerable time bringing the team up to speed in preparation for upcoming meetings with potential grantees and local implementing partners. As we continued to gather feedback from our consultants and witnessed the power of their contributions, we realized the importance of engaging with this group earlier. This shift has allowed consultants to be part of the planning process from the start, providing feedback and sharing insights on preliminary issue areas.
Be Flexible: Like many well thought out projects, we found ourselves pivoting many times from our original plans and timelines to respond to the evolving needs of our community and partners. We strategically planned meetings and engagement events only to discover that the community consultants were better suited for a different session, or we missed an opportunity to invite them. We’ve extended timelines to ensure that the community consultants have time to engage properly with potential organizations and debrief with us about their comments and concerns. Instead of focusing on the outcomes of discussions, we learned to value the process, creating space for community voice and engagement opportunities.
Build Trust: Our practice of being transparent with community consultants fosters trust and reciprocity. We aim to nurture relationships over time by being attentive, consistent, and transparent, clearly stating our opportunities and limitations as funders. Our community consultants are eager to share their thoughts about their experiences with us, which is invaluable. The success of this program is rooted in our ability to be open and honest with our consultant, thoughtfully incorporating their experience into our investment cycle, and communicating back how valuable their insights are to our final decisions
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