The efficient mindset focuses on simple numeric measures to determine the health of a community or a person. They are a formula, budget, spreadsheet. But they don't account for skills, relationships or learning...the essential capacities that predict success or failure.
-Deborah Frieze and Meg Wheatly in Walk Off, Walk On
IT'S ABOUT TIME: CHANGING HOW PHILANTHROPY WORKS
I never aspired to work in philanthropy; it always seemed very "ivory tower" and I worried it would be tone deaf to field needs. But I learned to love the work, despite it's flaws. I was always trying to reframe what was possible and rethink how we did things. As hard as it was to try and change ways of thinking an doing, I never wanted to give up on the possibility that things could be different. This is my list of what we could do to shift philanthropy towards greater impact and equity. It builds off of conversations I've had with fellow travelers and a generative panel discussion, in particular, with with three women warriors in philanthropy: Gabrielle Wyatt, Roxana Shirkhoda and Tina Joh.
From talking about social impact >>> To addressing racial and gender equity.
From talking about accountability >>> To finding real ways to engage with those most proximate to the problem.
From talking about program priorities in narrow buckets >>> To acknowledging the complexity and beauty in intersectionality, identity and place.
From saying our work is about partnering >>> To realizing the real work is about sharing power.
From congratulating ourselves for providing some unrestricted funding/operating dollars >>> To creating full cost models (acknowledging the infrastructure needed; non-profits cannot be expected to do more with less).
From investing in impact (as defined by the funder) and tracking narrow measures >>> To building relationships (needed in the field to sustain the work) and creating "stats in action" and collecting data and insights that are more useful, usable and used.
From letting urgency and efficiency drive strategic planning >>> To intensity and intentionality.
From thinking of scale as replication >>> To re framing scale as keeping participation shared across those most proximate to the problem (Michelle Fine) and thinking about scaling out instead of scaling up (Meg Wheatly and Deborah Frieze)
From valuing evidence as proof>>> To valuing evidence for the purposes of equity. (Jara Coffey Dean)
From thinking of the biggest intermediaries as change agents >>> To considering distributed networks and movements as critical infrastructure for public goods dissemination.
VISIONING EXERCISE
Bas Verhart , a co-founder of THNK, uses this prompt "Imagine if...We could...by using." as part of a visioning exercise. Here is how I filled in this prompt thinking about strategy, philanthropy and equity:
Imagine if women of color with deep expertise and experience dominated the leadership teams at the most influential philanthropies in the world. We could slowly change the way philanthropy works today by using inclusive leadership, intentionally designing shared theories of change and redefining what scale, impact, equity and sustainability means with those most proximate to the problem.
What's your imagine statement about philanthropy?
JUST PHILANTHROPY
I wrote a chapter in a book called Build Me The Evidence (to be published by the Brookings Institute) where I begin to layout some early thinking on how to shift philanthropy. Stay tuned.