A self-assessment tool for foundations on participatory practices | 12 April 2023 | Diana Samarasan, Katy Love
ioi_ab's bookmarks 2023-04-14
Summary:
"With the fragile state of democracy, growing inequality, social movements calling for action, and demands to address systemic injustices, philanthropic institutions are increasingly exploring participatory grantmaking. It seems that the concept of participation – involving people who are impacted by the grants a foundation gives – is resonating with philanthropic institutions. But do foundations know how to integrate participation? We hear from funders again and again that they are interested in incorporating participation into their work, sometimes beyond grantmaking, but they just don’t know how to do it or where to start. Even with the increasing number of reports, webinars, and blog posts about participatory grantmaking, funders are seeking something hands-on, practical, and action-oriented to meaningfully advance participatory practices. Over the last few years, using a participatory approach, we (Diana Samarasan and Katy Love) have developed a tool that we hope can address this need. We are two experienced practitioners and passionate advocates of participation and power shifting in philanthropy. Formerly the founding executive director of the Disability Rights Fund, Diana is an independent consultant with expertise in disability rights and inclusion and participatory philanthropy. Katy works closely with foundations to help them shift power and adopt participatory practices and has led or supported 50+ participatory processes with a variety of foundations. We are members of the Participatory Grantmaking (PGM) Community, and were members of a previous community of practice supported by HRFN and part of the group of instigators for the Candid / Grantcraft Guide Deciding Together on participatory grantmaking! We are excited that this momentum has built in philanthropy.