By: Jessica Bynoe, Executive Director
In this month’s Chronicle of Philanthropy Laurie Michaels, Founder of Open Road Alliance, presents a bold opinion that funder demands, philanthropic power, and lack of candid communication are getting in the way of real results and impact. She calls for better communication between grantmakers and grantees and for grantmakers to stop undercutting projects before they start with a lack of funding or ridiculous demands.
Of course, the question that remains is specifically HOW we can do this. How do we change an industry characterized by decades of power imbalance? How do you neutralize the inherent power of money? And, how do you truly create trust and candor?
Michaels suggestions about changing how we give grants and opening lines of communication are parts of the changes we need, but at Variety New York, we believe grantmakers must take it a step further. Perhaps several steps further. The only way we can achieve strong relationships and candor with our grantees is to roll up our sleeves and truly engage in the work with them. We must get to know their organizations, listen to their leadership, and investigate the threats and opportunities affecting their success as if it were our own success . . . because it is.
Variety New York offers our grantees robust capacity building support and grantee-directed technical assistance. We ask our grantees what they need and how they need it and we do everything in our power to give them the support to grow and thrive. We do not tell them what they need or what we want them to do. They understand their work better than anyone and we must trust that and join them in their efforts to build strong, effective organizations. At Variety, we have worked with grantees on projects as granular as helping them write their first annual mail appeal to projects as broad as determining a strategic growth plan to achieve scale. And each time we do this work, grantees develop a deeper trust in our partnership and, at the same time, a deeper motivation to be good stewards of any funds they receive.
We understand that many foundations promise capacity building these days. However, who is directing the goals and objectives of this work? Often, it is the funder exercising another level of power over grantees. With this interest in capacity building and a call to flatten the power hierarchies in philanthropy, there is a real opportunity for grantmakers to lean into the work like never before. We must take our cues from grantees, allow them to determine the supports they need and put the full force of our foundations’ resources (time, money, talent, power) behind our grantees.
Michaels’ subtitle to her article states that our obsession with safeguarding blinds us to real grantee needs. I challenge that if we use the strategies of true partnership and capacity building funders can not only safeguard, but ensure the success of investments exactly by opening our eyes to the needs of our grantees.