Nonprofit Administration and Management Commons^™

The Trouble With Community Engagement: From Power Sharing To Power Shifting Through The Community Bill Of Rights, Jessica Lee, Patrick Mcneal, Malikah Garner, Katya Fels Smyth, Tanya Tucker, Shemekka Stewart Isaacs, Jasmaine Shaphon Henry, Miranda Rabuck

The Foundation Review

Reflecting a growing consensus that meaningful change doesn’t come without the involvement of those most impacted, funders have signed on to efforts to “listen,” “get proximate,” and “empower.”

In this article, the authors draw on their lived expertise and research to describe how even well-intentioned community engagement efforts can become extractive, tokenizing, and undermine existing community assets. As a meaningful alternative, the authors suggest “centering community” as an orientation to all philanthropic work and the Community Bill of Rights (CBR) as a tool to guide the required change (Black et al., 2022).

Drawing on case examples from healthcare, urban planning, …

Funder Listening To Shift Power: Definitions And Context, Melinda Tuan, Rick Moyers, Gita Gulati-Partee

The Foundation Review

Listening in the context of philanthropy is a common colloquial term that can have many definitions, ranging from everyday conversations that inform foundation work to more formal opportunities for community engagement. Most foundations say they listen, but all forms of listening are not equally beneficial, and listening alone does not inherently advance equity. Listening, done poorly, can be performative and extractive. Listening well, in ways that advance equity, is done in partnership, requires a response from the listener to acknowledge what’s been heard and what will be done as a result, and ultimately shifts power to the community.

Fund for …

A New Opportunity For Funder-Nonprofit Partnership: Advancing Shared Listening Efforts To Learn From Community, Valerie Threlfall

The Foundation Review

Funders lack scalable tools and processes for advancing their community listening efforts. As foundations explore this work, there is an opportunity to leverage the nonprofit sector’s experience in listening and to partner more actively with grantees to learn from community.

Nonprofits have embraced community listening more rapidly than funders over the past 10 years. Over 40,000 organizations have affirmatively described their listening practices via How We Listen, a feedback self-assessment that is part of Candid and Charity Navigator’s nonprofit profiles, and approximately 1,400 organizations have participated in Listen4Good’s capacity-building programs. This momentum has enabled the development of tools such as …

Listening And Responding Lead To Better Outcomes: Building The Evidence Base For High-Quality Listening Practice, Penelope Huang

The Foundation Review

In 2019, Fund for Shared Insight made grants to six research teams to test the hypothesis that if direct-service organizations gain a deeper understanding of how well their programs are serving clients by listening and actively responding to client feedback, they can increase the likelihood of positive outcomes. This body of research explores the case for incorporating participant voice to improve program effectiveness.

As philanthropy seeks to become more responsive to the people and communities most impacted by their decisions, this research has important implications for philanthropic practice, including the selection of grantees, learning in partnership with grantees and community, …

Executive Summaries

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Editorial, Julia Coffman

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Tfr 17.2 Full Issue

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Community Engagement: A Core Practice On The Journey To Power Sharing, Elizabeth Jordan, Tryphena A. Clarke, Raquel R. Robinson

The Foundation Review

In this article, the authors posit that equity and power-sharing are foundational considerations for responsible philanthropy given the inherently unequal balance of wealth. These considerations may be magnified for family and place-based foundations where philanthropy has an outsized impact within a particular community.

Community engagement is a core practice tied to equity and power-sharing that can bring philanthropy into closer alignment with democratic and social equity values. This article examines the 15-year journey of a place-based family foundation as a reflection on how grantmaking organizations may shift their governance, giving priorities, staffing model, and operating practices to support the tenets …

Listening And Participation Prime Funders To Honor And Build Community Ownership, Gita Gulati-Partee, Katy Love

The Foundation Review

Funder listening is an essential complement to community participation to disrupt white dominant culture habits that entrench the status quo of hierarchy and power. Community-centered listening, combined with participatory processes, offers funders an opportunity to shift in deep and sustainable ways from an individualistic, “power over” orientation to interdependent relationships with community partners.

In this article, two practitioners of equity and participatory philanthropy share how funder listening and community participation form a potent combination to help funders confront their own power and use it intentionally to honor and bolster community ownership and agency.

Drawing on the authors’ direct experience, this …

Evaluating Efforts To Shift Power Through Listening: Defining Power And Listening To All Sides, Sarah Stachowiak, Juan Clavijo

The Foundation Review

There are a variety of ways funders and nonprofits are trying to shift the power dynamics between those who typically have held it (i.e., funders and organizations) to those who have unique and important expertise: those most affected by the problems the social sector is trying to solve.

In this article, we share lessons from two evaluations that sought to understand how those who were being listened to experienced the listening process, exploring the degree to which people felt heard and their experiences of how, and in what ways, power shifted for them. One evaluation focused on the experiences of …

Are Community Philanthropic Organizations Planning For Climate Change?, Beth Gazley, Rachel Cash, Laurie Paarlberg

The Foundation Review

Although their role is sometimes overlooked, an Indiana statewide study confirms that most community foundations and United Way agencies directly contribute to meeting local disaster response needs.

Although half of all community foundations and United Ways report past service disruptions due to the more severe weather caused by climate change, the majority have not discussed the need to plan for disasters with their boards of directors to assure business continuity.

Community foundations lag behind United Ways and direct service nonprofits in risk mitigation, and their leaders are more likely to downplay the potential impacts of climate change on state residents. …

Front And Back Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Emergent Models Of Place-Based Philanthropy: A Review Of Six Foundations’ Initiatives, Douglas Easterling

The Foundation Review

Traditional approaches to place-based philanthropy, including comprehensive community initiatives (CCIs), are characterized by four design features: 1) a centralized stakeholder group that serves as the primary nexus for the foundation’s engagement; 2) an extensive planning process on the front end; 3) the planning group’s initial strategy serves as the basis for the foundation’s investments throughout the initiative; and 4) foundation staff play a largely transactional role in reviewing proposals, awarding grants and monitoring progress. This linear, structured approach to community change has had only limited success over 30 years of foundation practice.

In response, a growing number of foundations have …

Strengthening Evaluation Contracting Partnerships: Fostering Stronger Relationships Between Funders And Small, Proximate Evaluation Firms, Hippolyt Pul, Carlisle Levine

The Foundation Review

Foundations often support initiatives in multiple countries and cultures, including within the United States, with limited access to or familiarity with the people and local contexts in which activities occur. To gain a deep and nuanced understanding of their investments’ relevance, effectiveness, and sustainability, foundations are often eager to partner with evaluators close to the contexts and people who participate in and are most affected by their investments.

Yet, foundations’ procurement and contracting systems may not be built for these partnerships. Through the Strengthening Evaluation Contracting Partnerships Initiative, we are addressing this challenge by helping foundations, small and proximate evaluation …

Editorial, Julia Coffman

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Engaging Youth In Philanthropic Practice: Field-Building Strategies And The Promise Of Youth-Possible Philanthropy™, Kimberlin D. Butler

The Foundation Review

Traditional philanthropy has largely been top-down, with communities — including youth — having limited decision-making power. Despite philanthropy’s recent shift toward participatory approaches, young people in these historically excluded communities are often ignored as contributors to philanthropic strategy.

Youth-Possible Philanthropy™ (YPP) offers a new, emerging theoretical framework that proposes to shift this dynamic by positioning youth as co-creators and possibility catalysts in philanthropic governance and strategy. YPP is grounded in possibility development, participatory approaches, and trust-based philanthropy.

The article provides strategies for operationalizing YPP. Case examples illustrate how YPP can foster authentic power-sharing and bridge gaps in philanthropic practice.

Tfr 17.1 Full Issue

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Disrupting Foundation Culture: Lessons In Learning To Share Power And Decision-Making, Sonia Caus Gleason, Tina Eshaghpour

The Foundation Review

There is much discussion of shifting organizational culture in philanthropies to share power and decision-making. However, examples of foundation learning endeavors to disrupt culture in service of systems change, racial equity, and responsiveness are less common.

Our article provides a window into the demanding work at The California Wellness Foundation and how internal collaboration and learning have led to progress in racial equity and power-sharing with communities. We focus on the introduction of Learning Labs, an action research model that framed and scaffolded the investigation of philanthropic terms and practices. This catalyzed collaborative decision-making within cross-functional teams while senior leaders …

Executive Summaries

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Leading Nonprofit Success Through Collaboration And Partnerships, Lakell Archer, Erica Bassett

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Abstract

Nonprofit organizations play a crucial role in addressing societal challenges, yet they often operate in a competitive environment with limited resources. To maximize impact and long-term sustainability, strategic partnerships and cross-sector collaborations have emerged as essential approaches. This paper explores the benefits of nonprofit collaboration, emphasizing its role in creating strategic advantages, improving service delivery, fostering innovation, and ensuring long-term resilience. The discussion highlights how collaborative leadership is key to overcoming barriers such as competition for funding, misaligned objectives, and trust deficits among partners. By examining real-world examples, the paper illustrates how effective partnerships enhance resource sharing, streamline operations, …

Community Centered Funding Models For Maine, Timothy Atkinson, Jillian Foley, Jane Rooks

Justice Policy

This report is an exploration of literature and frameworks for local community-driven funding strategies to improve Maine’s public health outcomes. The authors present a number of community-led funding theories such as place-based funding models and participatory grant making, examine lessons learned from recent public health events, and discuss reflections from interviews with key stakeholders. The report looks at examples of community-led models and makes recommendations for next steps such as improving collaborative relationships, strengthening peer-to-peer networks, expanding availability of flexible funding that includes backbone support, and conducting a cost-benefit analysis of collaborative community health capacity investment options.

Finding Our Way: Three Studies On The Evolving Role Of Arts Nonprofits In Contemporary Society, Trevor Meagher

Public Affairs Dissertations - Archive

Arts nonprofits play vital roles in defining the character of a community. However, our collective relationship with these organizations is evolving. This article-based dissertation leverages mixed methods to explore arts nonprofits’ evolving relationship with society.

The first article conceptually analyzes historical trends in arts advocacy in the United States. It explores how the arguments organizational supporters make in the hopes of securing financial and public support have developed and shifted in popularity over the past half-century. These streams are thematically connected through an emphasis on utilitarianism and value-extraction, and they have historically been employed in almost completely static proportion to …

Assessing Local Public Officials' Roles, Challenges, And Opportunities Encountered When Integrating Newcomers: A Case Study To Evaluate The Cities Of Rochester And Worthington., John Dassou

School of Business Student Theses and Dissertations

Immigrants’ integration plays an important part in policy concerns and goals in many local governments since it is a major issue for local officials to integrate immigrants and incorporate them into the host community successfully. Concurrently, it is important to know the roles of local public officials, host communities, and immigrants in the process. The purpose of this study is to assess the challenges that local officials face, and how they handle these encounters effectively and efficiently. Greater collaboration between all stakeholders, social cohesion, and collective efforts implies the idea that immigrants’ integration depends on many players and factors. It …

Raising The Bar: Improving How To Assess Evidence Quality In Evaluating Systems-Change Efforts, Marina Apgar, Thomas Aston, Mieke Snijder, Tom Zwollo

The Foundation Review

Facing the great scale of societal challenges, philanthropic organizations are increasingly calling for systems change. Evaluating systems change requires innovative approaches that respond to the complexities of such change in ways that support equity and multiracial democracy rather than undermining them.

A key concern in evaluating systems change is how to do so rigorously. Rigor has traditionally been equated with evaluative criteria such as independence and objectivity, and experimental methods and evidence hierarchies which sit uncomfortably with both complexity and equity. Yet when taking an alternative approach, many philanthropic organizations fear that without these standards, there are no standards at …

Forest For The Trees: Collective Accountability And Trust As Groundwork For Systems Change, Shaady Salehi, Pia Infante

The Foundation Review

Since 2020, trust-based philanthropy has gained momentum as a strategy to alleviate inherent power imbalances between funders, nonprofits, and the communities they serve. The cornerstone of the approach is a set of grantmaking practices, such as multiyear unrestricted funding and streamlined paperwork, that support nonprofit self-determination toward achieving impact goals.

At a deeper level, trust-based philanthropy is driven by core values that position funders as collaborators and supporters working alongside nonprofits to advance a more just and equitable society. This requires a radically different stance on accountability from conventional philanthropic norms. Rather than reinforcing a sense of one-way transactional accountability, …

Tfr 16.2 Full Issue

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Executive Summaries

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

A Philanthropic Theory Of Systems Transformation For Advancing Equity In The Polycrisis, Michael Quinn Patton, Ruth Richardson

The Foundation Review

The term “polycrisis” calls attention to overlapping, mutually reinforcing, and potentially disastrous trends and crises that are interconnected, like climate change, increasing global inequities, widespread disinformation, pandemic dangers, the ravages of war, and pollution of land, air, and water. Vulnerable and marginalized populations are most directly affected by the intensifying problems that are manifested in the polycrisis.

This article, on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of The Foundation Review, invites readers to ponder the risks posed by the polycrisis and how philanthropy might look beyond business as usual to respond to those risks. We review the evolution of philanthropic …

What Practices For Shifting Power Are Core To Advancing Racial Equity?, Kantahyanee W. Murray, Ji Won Shon, Ashley Barnes, Natalia Ibanez, Karuna Sridharan Chibber, Janelle Armstrong-Brown, Elvis Fraser

The Foundation Review

Power-shifting approaches are increasingly being recognized as practical solutions funders can employ to amplify the voice and agency of grant partners and communities, especially those historically under-resourced and marginalized.

Informed by a literature review and interviews with funders, grant partners, and thought leaders, this article describes four common practices for shifting power to advance equity: embed a racial equity lens into the process to shift power; demonstrate a genuine commitment to communities; give grant partners the power to define success; and embrace an internal systems change orientation.

This article explores the capabilities, mindsets, policies, skills, and resource considerations needed for …

Editorial, Hanh Cao Yu

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.