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Insights From Equity in the Center Summit

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As we draw close to the end of this year, we have an opportunity to reflect on how we’ve grown in our work toward racial equity and recommit to it in the year to come. I reflected on our racial equity journey quite a bit this fall, particularly at the Equity in the Center Summit, a gathering of nonprofit and philanthropic leaders exploring ways to advance racial equity inside organizations and across the social sector. I left the summit feeling humbled by how much more work I need to do and energized about what’s possible. I credit Kerrien Suarez, Monisha Kapila, and Andrew Plumley at ProInspire for designing powerful sessions at the summit where I gained insights and takeaways that will become part of our firm’s continuing racial equity learning journey and that may help you reflect on your own journey.

One of my most valuable takeaways from the summit was a reminder that working toward racial equity requires persistent commitment to systems change through educating myself and others, self-reflection, and a willingness to engage in conversations that are often difficult. As we continue our own learning, as individuals and as a team, here is some helpful advice I picked up from the summit.

  • When talking about equity, it’s critical to acknowledge the systems and structures that have enabled racism and oppression in our country for generations. It helps to have the language to talk about racism and the history to understand it. One consultant, Heather Hackman, who works with white people on understanding whiteness, carries books with her to show her clients the laws, practices, language, and decisions that created the conditions that benefit a few and maintain systems of oppression.
  • Liberalism should not be confused with racial justice. Cities that have progressive policies are not more equitable. Racism’s purpose is to deny, extract, and exploit resources from people of color for the benefit of white people and for this to seem normal. Racial justice requires intentional focus on realigning systems with our values and who we want to be as a society.
  • Racial equity work must include an organization’s leaders, executives, and board. Having leaders fully committed to doing the work is critical to advancing racial equity. Also, it isn’t enough to have people of color on the board; the board must be willing to push for change.

A couple of questions were in the back of my mind throughout the conference as I thought about how I do my own work and play a role in leading our firm toward fully living our equity values: How do I continue to push myself? And where do I get the energy to do it? Racial equity work is personal and difficult. I was relieved to see that others were also asking these questions. Here are ways we can continue to push ourselves and our organizations in our racial equity journeys.

Recommendations for Individuals

  • Take an unflinching look at yourself. Ask yourself, “How is colonization and white fragility showing up in how I engage?” (If you’re not sure, see the recommended resources below to spur deeper reflection)
  • Continue to work on your own implicit biases and internalized oppression
  • Hold yourself accountable to a specific community—this can be friends, mentors, colleagues, or the community you are trying to impact through your work
  • Increase your awareness of your own privilege and how you are using it
  • Get comfortable with being uncomfortable
  • Take time to take care of yourself (i.e., practice silent Sundays, or don’t engage when you know you have reached your energy limit)
  • Show compassion and grace to others when they are learning or processing something hard

Recommendations for Organizations

 

  • Embed racial equity and inclusion in organizational policies and practices
  • Create space for regular conversations and learning about racial equity
  • Create spaces for people of color to make organizational change, and support their work
  • Get staff buy-in on the organizational culture to which you aspire, and regularly check in on how you are doing in achieving that desired culture
  • Don’t be afraid to fail. Talk about the “ouch” moments, lean in to curiosity, and avoid judgement and shame
  • Recognize colleagues’ humanity (e.g., do head and heart check-ins during meetings; come together to process tragic events; prioritize colleagues’ ability to take care of themselves)

For more suggestions of steps you can take to advance racial equity in your relationships, organizations, and community, check out Equity in the Center’s Call to Action.

I would love to hear about your journey and learn about what’s working for you. What else are you doing to center equity in your work? What tools or resources have you found helpful? What successes and challenges have you experienced? Reply below or reach out to me.

Recommended Reading

 

Here are some additional resources that may help further your understanding of how to advance racial equity in the nonprofit sector.

The visual map was created for Equity in the Center by Julie Stuart of Making Ideas Visible

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Community-Led Change: A Capacity-Building Case Study

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“This is an excerpt of one case study in a suite of five focused on building grantee capacity. You can read the full case study on the GrantCraft website, and you can read an analysis and find links to all five case studies in our blog post “Five Elements for Success in Capacity Building.”

To make community change that sticks, the Wells Fargo Regional Foundation turns to those who know best what a neighborhood needs: community members themselves.

For more than 20 years, the foundation has invested in improving the quality of life for children and families living in low-income communities in Eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. The foundation works toward this goal by giving multiyear grants and capacity-building support to nonprofits that plan and implement neighborhood revitalization initiatives.

The foundation takes a robust approach to grantmaking that is long-term, resident-driven, and data-driven, integrating capacity-building support throughout partnerships with grantees that often last over a decade. This approach has resulted in significant development including new homes, strengthened commercial corridors, renovated community centers, safer parks, and more. The foundation has facilitated these outcomes by building the capacity of nonprofits and residents alike to continue to plan for and make lasting change in their communities even after the initiatives are complete.

Investing for the Long Haul

Long-term investing is in the foundation’s DNA. When two legacy banks—CoreStates Bank and First Union—merged in 1998, the endowed foundation was created to ensure that local communities didn’t lose the generous and focused support provided by CoreStates, which was known for its commitment to philanthropy and community development.

The merged entity was eventually acquired by Wells Fargo, which currently employs all five of the foundation’s staff members and carries on CoreStates’ legacy of community support.

WFRF initially experimented with different types of community development grants. The foundation knew that communities in their geographic footprint faced deeply rooted challenges like poverty.

“We knew that we were addressing a long-term problem, so we needed a long-term solution,” said Lois Greco, senior vice president and evaluation officer at the foundation. “You wouldn’t buy a house with a one-year loan. So why would you make a one-year grant to fund a 20-year solution?”

…

Head over to GrantCraft to continue reading.

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November Must-Reads

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This month, we were reminded of how hard it is to make changes within an organization, and we also got advice on a specific type of change: making boards more diverse. We heard concrete tips on how to gather feedback from those we seek to serve. And we were reminded of good foundation practices from funding capacity building to assessing performance.

What caught your attention this month?

1. How to Fund Capacity Building Well

CAPACITY BUILDING | India Development Review | 5-minute read

Funding isn’t always enough; nonprofits also need the right kind of capacity-building support at the right times. This blog post shares insights on when it’s most crucial to fund capacity building for grassroots organizations, how to understand the areas in which nonprofits most need support, how to measure the impact of capacity-building funding, and how capacity building is a lot like running a restaurant.

Did you see our new GrantCraft case studies on capacity building?

2. Tools and Lessons to Make Listening to Clients Feasible

LEARNING & EVALUATION | Stanford Social Innovation Review | 19-minute audio slideshow

Gathering feedback from clients and those you seek to serve can lead to invaluable insight. This audio slideshow shares a five-step process (developed by the Listen for Good initiative of Fund for Shared Insight) to truly listen to clients, collect data, interpret it, and respond to it.

3. Why Are We Still Struggling with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Nonprofit Governance?

EQUITY | Nonprofit Quarterly | 18-minute read

Many nonprofits recognize that nonprofit board diversity matters, so why has it remained stagnant overall? The writer shares insights from a panel discussion at the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action conference, providing several actionable frameworks and highlighting the panelists’ thoughts on:

  • how to reach beyond your social circles to identify board candidates of color
  • how to create mechanisms to hold yourself accountable
  • how to avoid tokenism and redistribute power

4. Streamlining Is Change, and Change Isn’t Easy

CHANGE MANAGEMENT | Peak Grantmaking | 5-minute read

“Change efforts meet confusion and resistance, even when the change is sensible and desired,” writes Dr. Streamline, also known as Jessica Bearman, for Peak Grantmaking. Bearman walks through the Change Curve, a framework that shows the predictable reactions people have to change over time, and several factors that may speed up or slow down the process. Though Bearman talks about making changes to grantmaking practices, the change management process she describes shows up in all types of organizations and situations.

5. Understanding & Sharing What Works: The State of Foundation Practice

LEARNING & EVALUATION | Center for Effective Philanthropy | 24-minute read

It can be hard to assess how well a foundation is performing. This new Center for Effective Philanthropy report shares how well private and community foundation leaders think they understand what’s working in their program work, how they use knowledge to make decisions, and what knowledge they share with others. The report includes discussion questions for foundation staff and boards of directors and is accompanied by a separate set of profiles of learning practices at Weingart Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Communities Foundation of Texas, and Impetus-PEF.

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Gain Success With These Five Elements of Capacity Building

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By Carla Taylor and Lori Bartczak

Nonprofit organizations must be strong and healthy to consistently deliver effective programs that advance their mission. Research backs this up; a study on Meyer Foundation grants found that investments in capacity produced positive, long-term financial results for nonprofits, regardless of the type of capacity building grants provided. Many grantmakers recognize this pattern and invest in capacity building for their grantees. According to a study from Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, 86 percent of grantmakers support some form of capacity building.

Through our work with partners, we have seen a number of grantmakers make deep, intentional commitments to building the capacity of their grantees. We’re excited to collaborate with GrantCraft to lift up some of the work we’ve been fortunate to be part of. In a series of five case studies, we will explore various approaches grantmakers are taking to support nonprofit capacity, the multitude of ways grantmakers think about and define capacity, and lessons learned from each approach.

The case studies, coming out over the next several weeks, will feature the work of five foundations:

  • The Kresge Foundation — Advancing Racial Equity Through Capacity Building: The Kresge Foundation’s Talent and Leadership Development Efforts. Read the case study.
  • Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund — Strengthening Fundraising Capacity: How the Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund is Supporting Innovation. Read the case study.
  • Wells Fargo Regional Foundation — Community-Led Change: How the Wells Fargo Regional Foundation Builds the Capacity of Nonprofits and Communities to Shape Neighborhoods Together. Read the case study.
  • Annie E. Casey Foundation — Building Capacity to Influence Public Policy: How the Annie E. Casey Foundation is Equipping Nonprofits to Advocate More Effectively. Read the case study.
  • Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation — Catalyzing Collaboration and Innovation: How the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation is Taking a Networked Approach to Building Nonprofit Capacity. Read the case study.

While the stories illustrate unique approaches, there are five common elements of capacity building that connect these narratives and that grantmakers might consider in their plans.

1. Commit for the long-term.

Nonprofits’ capacity-building priorities evolve over time as they work toward lasting change. In this context, capacity building requires long-term investments that are both realistic about the timeframe for social change and responsive to the developmental nature of grantees’ work.

As a spend-down foundation, the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation has set a 20-year vision for strengthening the capacity of nonprofits in Southeastern Michigan and Western New York. The Wells Fargo Regional Foundation also makes long-term commitments, partnering with grantees in its Neighborhood Grants Program for sometimes more than 10 years.

“We knew that we were addressing a long-term problem, so we needed a long-term solution,” said Lois Greco, senior vice president and evaluation officer at the Wells Fargo Regional Foundation. “You wouldn’t buy a house with a one-year loan. So why would you make a one-year grant to fund a twenty-year solution?”

2. Co-create solutions with stakeholders.

Nonprofit leaders possess critical information about the history and context of their work and what types of support are likely to make the biggest difference. Grantmakers should seek out these insights by engaging grantees in the design of capacity building approaches.

Building on a long-history of approaches to supporting leadership that are based on research and input from grantees, the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund used human-centered design methodologies to tap the insights and creativity of nonprofit leaders and service providers about how best to help nonprofits address fundraising challenges inside their organizations. Similarly, input from community is informing the Center for Nonprofit Support in Detroit, funded by the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation, every step of the way, from developing the logo and brand to designing the programs and services.

“Often community engagement is a one-time activity or a box that’s checked,” said Allandra Bulger, executive director of the Center for Nonprofit Support. “I don’t believe in the idea that if you build it they will continue to come. If you build something folks might come, poke around and see what it is, but for folks to truly engage in the center they have to see themselves in that space. They have to be part of cocreation.”

3. Strengthen the ecosystem.

A healthy nonprofit ecosystem includes a robust network of diverse supports. Paying attention to the relationships among capacity building consultants and technical assistance providers is an important ingredient for success.

An unexpected benefit of the pilot of The Kresge Foundation’s capacity-building program focused on talent and leadership development and racial equity was the opportunity for greater coordination and collaboration among service providers participating in the program. In the next iteration of the program, foundation staff made this an explicit goal of the program. The Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund also considered the ecosystem in which nonprofits operate: when identifying ways to help their grantees with fundraising challenges, the fund engaged service providers to shine a light on more holistic approaches to supporting fundraising inside organizations.

“The capacity building field is largely made up of subject experts,” said Julia Ritchie, director of strategy and special initiatives at the Haas Jr. Fund. “Unintentionally, many capacity building practitioners reinforce the very siloes that we are trying to break down in organizations. For instance, [some] strategic planners don’t include a revenue or business plan, [and some] fundraisers think only of the tactical solutions to fundraising but don’t think about the leadership and cultural practices that are needed to build and sustain fund development.”

4. Support both technical and adaptive capacities.

Funders and nonprofits alike recognize the value of adaptive capacities—such as the ability to collaborate, influence others and share leadership—in addressing complex problems. At the same time, research from the Center for Effective Philanthropy shows that the areas in which nonprofit leaders say they need the most support are technical capacities like fundraising, staffing and communications. Capacity-building approaches should look for needs and opportunities on both fronts.

Through its Neighborhood Grants Program, the Wells Fargo Regional Foundation supports a variety of capacities ranging from the technical aspects of financial sustainability to the complex, adaptive work of collaboration. Adaptive and technical capacities are sometimes intertwined: data on the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s KIDS COUNT grantees shows that strategic leadership capacity is a predictor of whether organizations will be strong in other areas, such as advocacy capacity and racial equity and inclusion capacity.

“Racial equity and inclusion is not just technical work,” said Jann Jackson, senior associate at the Annie E. Casey Foundation. “It requires adaptive leadership at the personal, organizational and systemic levels. We can read all the books and know the history and structure of racism in America, but until we change our views and behavior, whatever we do will not be sufficient. The work is never done.”

5. Ground capacity building in equity.

Efforts to advance social change in America inevitably come up against systems and structures that have created racial disparities for generations. To be effective, nonprofits need to understand how to advance racial equity through their programs and how to become more equitable inside their own organizations.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation, through its KIDS COUNT network, has defined competencies it thinks are necessary for nonprofits to effectively influence policy at the state level. Each of those core competencies includes a racial equity component, and the foundation has defined racial equity as a stand-alone competency as well. In another example, The Kresge Foundation’s Fostering Urban Equitable Leadership (FUEL) program is focused on supporting leadership development through an equity lens.

“Conversation is a necessity moving forward,” said Rip Rapson, president of The Kresge Foundation. “If we hope to fashion a more equitable society, we have to learn to have ongoing, frank and inherently difficult discussions about the needs of organizations facing up to this challenge. FUEL gives us an important tool for advancing this work.”

Join the conversation

These case studies show just five approaches. We would love to hear from more grantmakers committed to supporting nonprofit capacity. How do these elements for success show up in your approach to capacity building? What from this list do you want to try? What other elements are key to your success in capacity building? We’d also love to hear from nonprofits about their experiences receiving capacity-building support. What works well? What do you wish grantmakers did more of?

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October Must-Reads 2018

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This month, we were challenged to examine our silence by The Heinz Endowments’ Grant Oliphant. We were encouraged and equipped to put decision-making power in the hands of people affected by those decisions through GrantCraft’s new participatory grantmaking guide (which includes the art in this blog post) and Jennifer Vanica’s twenty-year story about the Jacobs Family Foundation. We were inspired by the public policy wins supported by Meyer Memorial Trust. And we were reminded by the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies of the messiness and fruitfulness of striving to work more equitably.

What caught your attention this month?

1. Deciding Together: Shifting Power and Resources Through Participatory Grantmaking

GRANTMAKING STRATEGY | GrantCraft | 2-hour thorough read

This robust GrantCraft guide is great for funders looking to more deeply understand why and how they can cede decision-making power to the communities they seek to serve. It delves into what exactly participatory grantmaking is and the benefits, challenges and best practices. The guide is rooted in lived experience, drawing on more than a dozen examples to illustrate the mechanics of how decisions in participatory grantmaking can be made, what the process can look like and how it can differ from funder to funder.

2. Affordable Housing Initiative: Changing the statewide conversation around housing issues

PUBLIC POLICY & SYSTEMS CHANGE | Meyer Memorial Trust | 4-minute read

A recent evaluation of Meyer Memorial Trust’s 2017 efforts under their Affordable Housing Initiative offers three takeaways for funders:

  1. Funders can legally and successfully support policy and advocacy efforts
  2. Targeted grants have elevated and amplified the voices of low-income Oregonians most affected by housing issues
  3. It’s important to work on both longer-term and more immediate goals around policy and systems change

The evaluation goes on to share statewide and local public policy wins, what the foundation has learned, challenges it encountered along the way, and thoughts on how the foundation can better operate, such as collaborating more with other funders. Meyer’s choice to publish this report demonstrates how foundations can be transparent and support each other’s learning.

3. Wielding Philanthropic Leadership With, Not For

LEADERSHIP | Stanford Social Innovation Review | 6-minute read

At a time of frequent displays of hate, prejudice and discord, it can be tempting to think the role of philanthropy is to “stay above the fray,” as Grant Oliphant of The Heinz Endowments writes. Yet philanthropy has an obligation to use its voice, he argues. To be courageous and ethical leaders, grantmakers need to learn from, listen deeply to, and share their power with others—including the power of their voice.

4. BALLE–Racial Equity Change from the Outside In

EQUITY | Nonprofit Quarterly | 17-minute read

Seven years after deciding to center racial equity in its work, the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) shares why and how it began making that change and where the organization is today. The article walks through the process of seeking to become a more equitable organization, the changes that developed organically and those that were made strategically, and the inevitable tensions and discomforts. BALLE team members offer advice for others on an equity journey and a reminder of the need for constant collective inquiry and learning.

5. Courageous Philanthropy: Going Public in a Closely Held World

GRANTMAKING STRATEGY | Jennifer Vanica | 534 pages

Over two decades, the Jacobs Family Foundation and residents of San Diego’s southeastern neighborhoods built a partnership that aimed to rest decisions in the hands of those affected by them. In this book, the foundation’s CEO, Jennifer Vanica, shares this story along with a broader one: “what can happen when philanthropy is aligned with community, determined to ensure equity, unafraid to share power, and committed to strengthening democracy by lifting the voice of those living change on the ground,” as PolicyLink’s Angela Glover Blackwell writes in the foreword. This book is for funders looking to work more equitably and forge more courageous relationships with the communities they seek to serve.

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September Must-Reads

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This month, we read transparent accounts from the Ford Foundation’s Megan Morrison and Chris Cardona, who shared the foundation’s journey addressing its flawed approach to collecting grantee diversity data, and Laura Weidman Powers, who wrote about why and how she stepped down as Code2040 CEO. We also read about the importance of getting out the vote, tensions in philanthropy and a report on young professionals in philanthropy.

1. Making It Count: The Evolution of the Ford Foundation’s Diversity Data Collection

EQUITY | Center for Effective Philanthropy | 10-minute read

When the Ford Foundation revisited its grantmaking process, it also revisited the questions it asks applicants and grantees about diversity. In this blog post, the foundation shares its journey identifying flaws in its previous approach to gathering grantee diversity data, how it now collects and analyzes the data, and what it’s learning. This journey also led the foundation to turn the spotlight on itself and begin an internal diversity, equity and inclusion audit.

2. How to Know When It’s Time to Go

LEADERSHIP | LinkedIn Pulse | 11-minute read

In a powerfully transparent blog post, Code2040 cofounder Laura Weidman Powers shares the story of why and how she stepped down as the organization’s CEO. She writes openly about the pressure and loneliness that can come with leadership, how she prepared for a successor and how she knew when the organization’s success no longer depended on her leadership.

3. Stop Sitting on the Sidelines, Nonprofits, and Get Out the Vote

ADVOCACY | The Chronicle of Philanthropy | 4-minute read

Outcomes of the November midterm elections will impact the work of nonprofits. More than ever, nonprofits should—and legally can—encourage and educate voters this year, argues Billy Shore, the founder of Share Our Strength and Community Wealth Partners. (For more resources on how foundations can effectively and legally support voting and advocacy, explore the Council on Foundations’ Advocacy Toolkit and Bolder Advocacy’s resources for foundations supporting advocacy.)

4. Gospels of Giving for the New Gilded Age

EQUITY | New Yorker | 15-minute read

Is philanthropy solving problems or creating new ones? Should philanthropists be focused on doing more good or doing less harm? Starting with a description of Andrew Carnegie’s approach to donating his wealth while cutting wages for employees, the writer of this article considers these questions through four pieces of literature, including the recently published “Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World” by Anand Giridharadas.

5. Dissonance & Disconnects: How entry- and mid-level foundation staff see their futures, their institutions and their field 

SECTOR TRENDS | Emerging Leaders in Philanthropy | 20-minute read 

This report by Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy shares findings from a 2017 survey about early- and mid-level foundation staff members’ thoughts, feelings and experiences in philanthropy. The survey results reveal that:

  • 55 percent of young professionals in philanthropy see themselves leaving philanthropy within the next five years
  • 6 percent see a clear path to advance from their current positions within their institutions
  • 51 percent think philanthropy is an effective player in social change
  • 21 percent think the culture of philanthropy is inclusive of all backgrounds
  • 40 percent think their institutions are in touch with the needs of the communities they support

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To Go Further, Get Serious About Culture

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This blog was originally posted on the Collective Impact Forum blog. See the original post here.

We’ve all witnessed the importance of culture in organizations. Many leaders have seen their efforts fall apart because their team wasn’t aligned or power dynamics impeded their progress. On the other hand, others have been part of teams that built such a deep sense of trust that they took greater risks and ultimately achieved greater change.

Culture can speed up or slow down progress because, at the end of the day, we’re complex humans working with other complex humans. These same dynamics are at play in collaborative efforts such as collective impact initiatives. If we want to be successful at collective impact, stakeholders must define and tend to a shared culture across the collaborative.

While many of us can attest to the importance of culture from our experience working inside organizations, our research at Community Wealth Partners backs it up. When we examined various transformational initiatives that involved multiple stakeholders, including the anti-malaria movement and anti-smoking movement, in every instance, an intentional culture emerged as a necessary element in achieving dramatic change. And though each culture will be unique, the cultures in these change-making initiatives shared several characteristics:

  • A focus on outcomes
  • Transparency
  • Authenticity
  • Collaboration and partnership
  • Equity and inclusion
  • Continuous learning and improvement
  • Openness to risk and change

Whether your collective is newly formed or has worked together for years, you can take concrete steps to build, strengthen and maintain culture.

How to Build Culture in a Collective

Culture is defined as the “way we do things around here” or, more formally, the values (what we care about) and behaviors (specific actions to live out the values) that guide how we interact. Explicitly stating values and behaviors can help inform a group’s decisions and how individuals interact with each other. It can prove particularly important in moments of tension, grounding groups in shared values and helping them productively work through conflict.

A first step in getting intentional about culture is to start a conversation about what core values guide the group’s collaboration. You’ll want just a few values, ideally no more than five. The clearer and more concise they are, the easier they will be for members of the collective to remember. For example, one of the Arizona Early Childhood Alliance’s values is “respectful dialogue”—it’s short, sweet and easy to recall.

The next step is determining how these values can be lived out through behaviors. While many groups recognize the importance of clarifying their values, few articulate associated behaviors. Yet getting detailed on what, exactly, collaborative members can do to live out values is crucial to turning lofty ideas into clear action. When articulating behaviors, make sure to keep the group’s broader goals in mind and tie behaviors to the outcomes you’re seeking. Group members might start a discussion about behaviors by asking themselves: What are the behaviors I expect of my partners and to which I’m also willing to hold myself accountable? One of the ways the Arizona Early Childhood Alliance wanted to demonstrate their value of “respectful dialogue” was to “seek first to understand and then to be understood.” Aligning on these behaviors is important, but perhaps even more critical is building commitment among all group members to hold themselves and each other accountable to them.

Adapted from the Stanford Social Innovation Review article “Cocreating a Change-Making Culture.”

These conversations provide a great opportunity to address power dynamics, which can limit a group’s progress. Power dynamics inevitably exist—between funders and grantees or around race, gender, sexual orientation, ability, socioeconomic status and other identities. As a group, discuss structures that might help you recognize, equalize and manage power dynamics. For example, the Kauffman Foundation’s Early Education Funders Collaborative adopted a one-vote policy in which all funders, regardless of the size of their grant, would have the same decision-making power. Other collaboratives have created shared-leadership structures and rotating leadership roles.

How to Maintain Culture

Culture-building isn’t a task or onetime project. You must continually nurture culture and revisit it. It helps to create mechanisms to recognize when the culture is being lived out and when the group falls short. This might include shout-outs in meetings where team members recognize moments in which they’ve seen each other uphold the values or a space for team members to share feedback with each other. The culture will be tested as the group welcomes new members, shifts its strategies and responds to new dynamics. As new members join the collective, you’ll also want to give them an opportunity to shape and commit to the culture. It also helps to revisit the behaviors and ensure they’re leading to the collaborative’s desired results. We’ve found it helpful to go through the process of revisiting values and behaviors as often as every three years.

When it comes down to it, culture is often seen as a nice-to-have, yet we believe culture is critical if a group hopes to truly transform communities. To make the change we seek through collective impact initiatives, we have to do the hard and rewarding work of co-creating a strong culture.

For more resources on culture, take a look at the SSIR article “Cocreating a Change-Making Culture,” the Grantmakers for Effective Organizations Culture Resource Guide and the Collective Impact Forum blog post The Culture of Collective Impact by Paul Schmitz.

To read the original post, head over to the Collective Impact Forum blog.

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August Must-Reads 2018

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Each month, we gather five new resources that can help us work smarter, think more deeply, and more effectively contribute to the change we seek. This month’s reads include initial results from the Ford Foundation’s BUILD initiative, how Democracy Fund is adapting its strategies in changing times, the Meyer Foundation’s data showing the importance of leadership development, reasons that Native American organizations and causes are chronically underfunded, and economists’ arguments against randomized control trials.

 

1. One of the Country’s Largest Foundations is Trying to Change How Philanthropy Works

STRATEGY | Inside Philanthropy | 13-minute read

The Ford Foundation’s BUILD initiative is changing how the foundation works by providing social justice nonprofits with long-term grants for general operating support and organizational strengthening. Two years in, BUILD is starting to see positive results: organizations are planning and collaborating in ways they never could before. This blog post shares some early results and the BUILD director Kathy Reich’s hope to make this type of grantmaking the status quo not just for the foundation but for the whole philanthropic sector.

2. Adapting Long-term Strategies in Times of Profound Change

STRATEGY | Stanford Social Innovation Review | 6-minute read

Imagine you carefully crafted a set of long-term strategies, and then something happens to change the context in which you’re working. How can you shift your approach to this new context? After the U.S. presidential election, Democracy Fund—like many organizations—grappled with this situation. The foundation had just completed a two-year planning process when the election brought upheaval around the very issues they chose to focus on (elections, governance and the public square). In this blog post, Democracy Fund shares what they’ve learned and three ways other foundations can equip themselves to better respond to changing contexts.

3. How Investing in People Directly Supports Programs

CAPACITY BUILDING | Fund the People | 4-minute read

It may seem wise to prioritize capacity building for fundraising over leadership development, especially for organizations with tight budgets. And yet, data from the Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation’s capacity-building investments show that non-financial related capacity building had a greater positive impact on organizations’ revenue. The Meyer Foundation president and CEO Nicky Goren shares why professional and leadership development is core to an organization’s ability to produce better and bigger results.

4. New First Nations Report Explores Why Philanthropy Continues to Underfund Native American Causes

EQUITY | Business Insider | 4-minute read

Large foundations’ giving to Native American organizations and causes is declining. This report by First Nations Development Institute shares what might be leading to the chronic underfunding of Native American communities and causes. In addition to elevating several underlying reasons and addressing common misconceptions about Native American communities, the report also includes recommendations for both foundations and nonprofits, including the importance of making site visits and supporting Native Americans’ careers in philanthropy.

5. The Foreign Aid System Is Broken. Randomized Control Trials Won’t Fix It.

EVALUATION | Bright Magazine | 8-minute read

Evaluating impact through randomized control trials may work well in medicine, but not in social change, argues Barbara Harriss-White, one of 15 leading economists—including three Nobel Prize winners—who wrote a letter speaking out against “aid effectiveness.” In this interview, she shares why the group thinks randomized control trials won’t help us address systemic root problems and might cause more harm than good.

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July Must-Reads

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Each month, we gather five new resources that can help us work smarter, think more deeply and more effectively contribute to the change we seek. This month’s reads cover what went wrong in a global effort to reduce open-fire cooking, a conversation about the role of data and foundations in fighting racism, how organizations can create a strong culture, trends in charitable giving, and how collaborations can navigate challenges in sharing data.

1. Undercooked: An Expensive Push to Save Lives and Protect the Planet Falls Short

STRATEGY | ProPublica | 18-minute read

After eight years and $75 million, efforts by the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves have seen only modest progress. The stoves distributed haven’t effectively reduced users’ risk of deadly illnesses, if they’re used at all, and the environmental impact of cooking fires has proven to be less harmful than initially thought. So what went wrong? And what can we learn from this effort? This article raises valuable questions we can ask ourselves as we seek to strengthen our own change efforts.

2. Conversation about Data and Racism

EQUITY | Chronicle of Philanthropy & Twitter Feed

Philanthropy’s Racism Problem Stems From Too Little Data

(4-minute read) To guide their actions on diversity, equity and inclusion, foundations need to understand the demographics of the organizations and communities they’re granting to (or not), say Michelle Greanias and Melissa Sines of PEAK Grantmaking.

Response from Jennifer Lentfer

(1-minute read) Yes, and while data is important, foundations must also question their power and how they might exacerbate inequalities in asking for this information, says Jennifer Lentfer of Thousand Currents.

3. How Leaders Can Strengthen Their Organizational Culture

CULTURE | Stanford Social Innovation Review | 7-minute read 

The social sector isn’t immune to toxic individuals and cultures. To counter that, we should not only hold ourselves accountable for what we accomplish, but also for how we accomplish it, argues Alexa Cortes Culwell of Open Impact. Leaders should ask four questions: 1) Are your organization’s values and cultural norms explicitly stated? 2) Does your organization have policies in place to ensure that everyone, especially top leadership, is held accountable? 3) Does your organization have policies in place to support diversity, equity and inclusion at all levels? And 4) Does your revenue model take into account fair and equitable employee compensation? For more on creating a strong culture, including 10 steps to guide your culture efforts, take a look at our article, “Cocreating a Change-Making Culture.”

4. 6 Signs of Trouble Ahead in Charitable Giving

SECTOR TRENDS | Chronicle of Philanthropy | 2-minute read 

Although charitable giving was at its highest in 2017, several trends suggest the future of philanthropy might be shaky. The percentage of Americans who donate is declining among every age group, income level and education level, leaving nonprofits to increasingly rely on wealthy individuals. At the same time, groups are getting creative in how they raise money.

5. Data Sharing Within Cross-Sector Collaborations

COLLABORATION | The BUILD Health Challenge | 51-minute read 

We know how important data is in collective efforts to improve community health, but we may not agree on how to use it. This report examines the five most common data challenges from the BUILD Health Challenge cohort: 1) HIPAA concerns, 2) logistics of sharing data across different data systems, 3) language differences between partners, 4) lack of experience with data, and 5) finding methods or metrics to evaluate interventions. It includes examples of how others tackled these challenges, takeaways, tools and best practices.

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June Must-Reads 2018

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Each month, we gather five new resources that can help us work smarter, think more deeply and more effectively create the change we want to see in this complex world. This month’s reads cover ways funders can support refugees and asylum seekers, equitable systems change, lessons from capacity-building cohorts, how grantmakers can help nonprofits measure impact and reflections on civil society today.

1. Philanthropic Strategies to Support Refugees and Asylum Seekers

STRATEGY | Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees

This new report comes at a crucial time as needs surge among refugees, asylum seekers and unaccompanied children. In it, you’ll find 10 case studies of how grantmakers—including Open Society Foundations, Weingart Foundation, Robin Hood and others of various structures, sizes and geographic priorities—are supporting newcomers. Their strategies shed light on the diverse ways grantmakers can take a more active role, while the lessons learned and recommendations highlight the need for grantmakers to collaborate, think systemically, take holistic approaches, leverage their convening power and more.

2. Systems Change with an Equity Lens: Community Interventions that Shift Power and Center Race

EQUITY | Management Assistance Group and Building Movement Project

As we see more attention to racism and other injustices, we’re also seeing greater urgency and commitment to not only improve systems but disrupt and transform them. Yet dominant approaches to systems change typically don’t integrate an intentional racial equity lens. This webinar introduces a framework with four key components that distinguish systems change with an equity lens from other systems change efforts and features speakers Lauren Padilla-Valverde, Senior Program Manager at the California Endowment, and Reverend Joan C. Ross of the North End Woodward Community Coalition.

3. Learning Together: Building Capacity and Relationships

CAPACITY BUILDING | David and Lucile Packard Foundation

For the past five years, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation has worked with grantees and other funders to co-design capacity-building cohorts. Based on a recent evaluation, those cohorts are working: 99 percent of participants said their capacity in the focus area increased as a result of participating in the cohort project, and 100 percent of participants reported that they benefited from the peer-learning format. Along with their evaluation results, the foundation shares five recommendations that emerged for other funders planning cohort-based capacity building projects.

4. 8 Ways Grantmakers Can Help Nonprofits Measure Impact

LEARNING & EVALUATION | Chronicle of Philanthropy

Using evaluation data to assess long-term change and learn for improvement requires a shift for many grantmakers and nonprofits who are more accustomed to using data to report on programmatic outcomes as an accountability measure. Organizations need time, skill and money to make this shift, and experts say grantmakers aren’t providing the level of support that would help nonprofits use evaluation as a tool for learning and improvement. This resource shares eight ways grantmakers can help organizations measure—and maximize—their impact.

5. Civil Society for the 21st Century

SECTOR TRENDS | Stanford Social Innovation Review

In this new Independent Sector–led series, contributing authors share their thoughts on civil society, defined as the vast, undefined space between the individual and the state. What does it look like today for individuals to organize around the things that matter to them and advance shared goals? The series will explore civil society and its origins, evolution, boundaries, blind spots, values, variety, obstacles and opportunities.

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