Since 2020, there has been no hotter topic in institutional philanthropy than the need for change to the traditional or standard model of grantmaking. Across the spectrum, from those who focus on equity and power shifting to those simply interested in greater impact, we hear talk about transforming practices and culture within foundations.
Much talk – but what action? There has certainly been movement in the foundation community towards public commitments to change. Many funders since 2020 have signed pledges to change their practices and to move towards more flexible funding, more support for operating costs, more multi-year grants and fewer reports and evaluations. These changes are advocated most prominently by the movement towards “trust-based philanthropy”. But such changes in practice don’t necessarily lead to the internal deep cultural change that is transformational. The underlying dynamic of funders, to maintain control as a matter of accountability and often as a matter of donor preference, limits more fundamental change.
This is not easy, to say the least. Changing granting practices to respond to a sense of urgency and crisis does not lead to deeper change without committed leadership, an investment of time, and a willingness to examine internal assumptions.
More funders in the United States and Europe are following the external changes in their relationships with grantees with internal changes in their culture, with significant encouragement and learning from their peers. Since 2020, the development of peer networks in philanthropy has created space for exchange and learning on the difficult work of internal change. They are supporting the growth of philanthropic “learning” organizations.
In the United Kingdom, the Open and Trusting Grantmakers community of practice was set up in 2021. It is made up of over 100 funders who have committed to a set of principles and practices aimed at shifting relationships onto a more trusting footing.
In Germany, Trust Creates Impact, a peer network of more than 30 German-speaking foundations form Germany and Switzerland, has been active for over four years.
In the United States, the Trust Based Philanthropy Project was launched in 2020 as a five-year peer-to-peer funder learning initiative. In 2022, the Center for Effective Philanthropy created a 9 month Trust Based Philanthropy Learning Cohort which has already sold out.
Recognizing this trend, Alliance Magazine, the global magazine for philanthropy, devoted part of its March 2023 issue to the theme of Transformation on the Agenda. Introducing this issue, Alliance’s editor, Charles Keidan, notes that “for change to be truly enduring, it’s said that it needs to start from within….Transformation requires a more thoroughgoing shakeup of what we do and how we do it, reconsidering not only how we relate to the rest of society but how we behave and see ourselves.”
These are all indications of the interest that institutional funders are demonstrating in learning about how to drive change from within foundations, with the aim of becoming more effective and more equitable.
In Canada, we have been slower to create a peer learning network for institutional funders although a community of practice focused on philanthropy and equity was started in 2021 by two non-profit fundaisers, Tanya Rumble and Nicole McVan. Some webinars and research publications have been organized by the organized philanthropy networks such as Philanthropic Foundations Canada, specifically on the changes suggested by trust-based philanthropy. But there is less evidence in the funder community of a commitment to a more systematic and internal commitment to learning. One of the lessons of the past three years is that learning is a key to funder internal transformation and to more effective funder strategies. The new peer networks in other parts of the world are focused on learning collectively, overcoming barriers and sharing examples of what works with each other as they move forward.
What do these networks have to share about the key factors in becoming a learning organization?
The peer networks are generous in sharing their resources. Here are links to recent YouTube webinar conversations about transformation and learning in foundations that are worth listening to:
There are also some excellent tools available now that could help to kickstart conversations about internal changes within foundations who want to increase their strategic impact. In my 2022 blog Thinking Hard About Trust I link to the provocative and searching questions for foundation boards and staff provided by the German Maecenata Institute. The Institute for Voluntary Action Research (IVAR) in the United Kingdom has an excellent paper Giving Learning a Seat at the Board Table. The Trust Based Philanthropy Project shares a very good webinar on a trust-based framework for learning and evaluation in philanthropy.
Some Canadian public and private funders are already moving down this path of internal change and learning: Trillium, Vancouver, Chagnon, McConnell, Hallman, United Way/Centraide, some of the arts councils. Perhaps 2023 will see the emergence of a dedicated Canadian funder peer learning network that embraces the idea of internal transformation in philanthropy and puts actions to words about change.