Keerti Kanchinadam and Emily Boer Drake - August 20, 2024
This blog complements research and a report that was co-led with our wonderful partner Eiko Sugano of Cartwheel Coaching and Consulting
Over more than 20 years, Learning for Action has used our skills as evaluators, strategists, and capacity-builders to support many, many funders. And yes, we’ll admit it, we’ve got a type. We are particularly drawn to funders who are attuned to how they do the work as much as what they are doing. For example, we love helping funders deepen their investments in programs as well their commitment to the leaders and organizations who drive these programs. We’re also unabashedly attracted to working with funders who are committed to advancing racial equity and use all the tools in their toolbox towards these goals.
What we’ve learned working with equity-driven funders of capacity building
Luckily, there are plenty of amazing funders committed to capacity building and racial equity. Across philanthropy, we have seen funders commit to investing in organizations working to advance equity and partnered with them to support this work. Truly investing in advancing equity while funding capacity building efforts means supporting organizations that might be smaller, newer, and community-based and led. Funders that have recently committed to investing in racial equity in the United States may also be newly supporting organizations led by and serving Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and AAPI communities. Like all nonprofit organizations, these organizations need not only programmatic support, but also investments in leadership and organizational strength.
Over the years, we’ve seen and we’ve learned a lot about how to do this work well. And we’ve offered guidance to funders helping them move from the “what” to the “how” as they seek to ground their capacity building funding practices in equity values. We’ve also supported funders with reflecting on how their equitable capacity building practices are going. It takes a commitment to try out something new, but it takes true dedication and resolve to reflect on how well that new thing is going and be honest in your reflections. Here we want to share with you what we’ve been learning and trying out with some of our foundation clients.
A new tool for funders of capacity building
Click below to see our new tool designed for funders of capacity building who seek to better support leaders and organizations that are most affected by systemic inequity.
This tool offers two key elements:
A set of practices to help funders move from the “what” to the “how” of centering organizations and leaders most affected by systemic inequity. Capacity building funders can’t keep doing what’s always been done and expect things to be different. If we want to make meaningful change towards racial equity we need to center those who are most impacted by systemic inequity. In this context, this means taking tangible steps to truly center nonprofit and community leaders and organizations who are most impacted. This tool offers some ideas for practical steps funders could take to deepen trust, be more flexible and transparent, build partnerships, center the expertise of BIPOC leaders, and more.
A set of questions to guide funder reflection on the set of practices. We believe this work is most successful when funders are willing and able to turn the lens inward by building a practice of reflection, asking for feedback, and using learning to adapt. This tool offers a set of questions to ask yourself as you work to deepen equity-centered practices in funding capacity building work.
We are building on a Legacy of work
As an important caveat, we offer this tool as a complement to what has been previously discussed across the philanthropic and social sector fields. This tool is “new” in that it offers a handy snapshot of what we have learned from our experience working with funders and nonprofit organizations. However, we acknowledge that many of these practices and ideas build on a long legacy of ideas (including but not limited to: Ford Foundation’s Building Institutions and Networks (BUILD) initiative, Trust-Based Philanthropy Project, Transformational Capacity Building, Equitable Evaluation Initiative, Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity, Justice Funders Resonance Framework for Philanthropic Transformation, and Point the Way: Chicago-area Capacity Building Landscape Study). We recognize and appreciate all the important thought-leadership and work in the social sector that influenced our own work in this space.
We also want to acknowledge how insufficient the term “capacity building” is. The term has often been used in top-down ways (implying that only funders can teach or build an organization's capacity). While we are using this imperfect term, we want to be clear that we believe that organizations already possess deep capacity and expertise, and we believe that learning and capacity building must be reciprocal. These are core values we bring to capacity building that are embedded in this tool and in how we approach the work.
What does this spark for you?
Finally, we know this tool doesn’t capture it all. How does your organization center racial equity practices in capacity building efforts? We’d love to hear from you! Leave a comment below, join the conversation on Linkedin, or send us an email to connect.