The philanthropic sector is supported by a myriad of organizations and networks devoted to elevating models of effective grantmaker practice based on a strong foundation of research and experience with the goal of realizing philanthropy’s potential to drive positive social change. Despite this broad ecosystem of actors, contradictions abound.
For example, Grantmakers for Effective Organization’s ‘Is Grantmaking Getting Smarter?’ field survey found that:
- More grantmakers than ever are providing some type of capacity building support to their grantee partners (a growth from 65% in 2008 and 2011 to 86% in 2017), but the proportion of grantmakers providing multiyear support has stayed flat from 2008 to 2017 and there was a decrease in the percentage of grantmakers providing general operating support.
- More grantmakers are soliciting feedback from their grantees (both anonymous and named) and assessing the needs of the communities within which they work, but there was only a marginal shift in power-sharing practices (grantee advisory committees, delegating decision-making to grantees and recipient communities).
- 84% of grantmakers consider diversity, equity and inclusion central, essential or relevant to their organizations, but only 18% of grantmaker Boards have participated in some kind of DEI assessment or training.
As a result of these contradictions, grantmaker practice continues to undermine nonprofits’ work by setting up roadblocks that push impact-focused projects off-course 46% of the time.
IF OUR SUCCESS AS GRANTMAKERS IS PREDICATED ON THE ABILITY OF OUR NONPROFIT AND COMMUNITY PARTNERS TO ACHIEVE THEIR MISSIONS, THEN HOW DO WE ENSURE THAT GRANTMAKER PRACTICE IS A CATALYST FOR GREATER IMPACT VS. ACTING AS A ROADBLOCK?
SHIFTING FROM AWARENESS TO PRACTICE CHANGE
When grantmakers are on a path to acquire new knowledge and put new practices in place they most often turn to their peers, rather than a particular organization or publication2. Publications, stories and research on effective grantmaker practice, complemented by plenaries and/or sessions at industry conferences, are powerful strategies to make the case for these approaches to fellow grantmakers – often accompanied by case studies or stories about how grantmakers apply these practices at their own organizations. However, these dissemination strategies are only effective up to a point, but then struggle to catalyze practice change beyond a core group of “true believers.” Inevitably, they are crowded out by other burgeoning trends or “thought leadership” and the individuals, organizations or networks at the heart of these approaches find themselves at an impasse.
TO BRIDGE THE GAP BETWEEN KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICE CHANGE WE BELIEVE THAT THE UNIT OF CHANGE IS IN THE RELATIONSHIP CULTIVATED AMONG GRANTMAKERS WHO WANT TO IMPROVE THEIR PRACTICE.
This peer-to-peer relationship is grounded in:
- A shared desire to learn and improve
- Easily applied tools, knowledge and resources
- Practical and actionable steps to make incremental, but steady, change
- Space for safe and courageous conversations
- Different systems of accountability to see the change take hold
THE ACCELERATOR’S ROLE
The Social Sector Accelerator is nonprofit advisory and intermediary services organization dedicated to helping grantmakers change their practice and incorporate values-based ideas into their work so that leaders, organizations and networks have the resources and partnerships they need to achieve sustainable, positive change in their communities.
We believe that:
- Grantmakers can realize a capacity dividend, or a “return” on their investment when they commit to strengthening and bolstering the resilience of the organizations they support
- There is no one size fits all approach for grantmakers – each grantmaker must craft their own strategy, drawing on evidence and best practice, and tailoring it to their values and goals
- Our effectiveness is predicated upon increasing the number of grantmakers who engage in the practices that we believe are essential to a strong and vibrant social sector
- Investments in organizational strengthening are both strategies for ensuring the resiliency of the organizations that make up the social sector and enable them to achieve their full potential
- How these investments are made (in partnership with trust, humility, an understanding of root cause, a commitment to equity), not just the support itself, is essential to their success
WE PROPOSE A COMPLEMENT TO EXISTING EFFORTS TO TRANSFORM GRANTMAKER PRACTICE, MANY OF WHICH ARE VALUES-ALIGNED AND SEEK TO INFLUENCE SIMILAR CHANGES.
OUR WORK
Rather than focusing on one-to-one engagements with grantmakers, we are undertaking a suite of field building activities that are grounded in:
- Collaboratively building and adapting tools and resources that the field can adopt.
- Cultivating relationships and communities among small groups of grantmakers grounded in a desire to improve practice.
- Making connections between values-aligned resources, grantmakers and networks.
FIELD BUILDING ACTIVITIES
The Social Sector Accelerator currently engages in the following field building activities:
- Nurturing a community of practice of like-minded grantmakers in GEO’s re-launched Capacity Building Champions.
- Collaboratively building tools to address pressing challenges in the field of organizational strengthening.
- Leading participatory research efforts to understand key trends and challenges in the field.
- Organizing peer action learning opportunities that bring together grantmakers and capacity builders from across the country to dive into effective approaches to strengthening leaders, organizations, and networks. These programs are co-designed with grantmakers, based on identified needs and shared questions, feature learning and resources from across the sector, are highly participatory, and place a strong emphasis on relationship building.
- Helping capacity building funder collaboratives engage in shared learning, understand their purpose and move from conversation to aligned action.
- Sharing our research, facilitating conversation, refining our tools and encouraging behavior change through invitations to present to groups of funders.