Social Innovation Forum
We are pleased to share Social Innovation Forum’s (SIF’s) most recent publication, “Shifting Power: The Social Innovation Forum’s Participatory Philanthropy Pilot”, with our network.
In 2021 and 2022, SIF embarked on an exciting two-year participatory philanthropy pilot. Participatory philanthropy is an approach that turns over decision-making power about philanthropic resources to the communities impacted by the decision. Our goal was to shift traditional power dynamics between funders and nonprofits. To do this, we changed the selection process for SIF’s Social Innovator Accelerator. Instead of funders working with the SIF team to select applicants, we partnered with nonprofit leaders with lived and learned experience. We believe these leaders are uniquely positioned to evaluate applicants for the Accelerator program.
This pilot represented an opportunity to put SIF’s core values into action.
Our core values of diversity, equity, and inclusion are at the heart of why we took on this project. We knew that the voices of those closest to the issues we are trying to address and the communities we are trying to serve often don’t have a seat at philanthropic decision-making tables. At SIF, we are fortunate to have an incredible community of nonprofit leaders across our 130+ Social Innovator Alumni organizations. Many of these leaders have direct connections to the work being done at their nonprofits. We hired six of these leaders as nonprofit consultants to serve as decision-makers during the pilot.
As we got started, our core value of nimbleness became more important than ever. After reviewing the first-round written applications, nonprofit leaders expressed interest in meeting with applicants. This was different from SIF’s typical practice of requesting a second written application. With some creativity, we were able to make adjustments and try out this new approach. Because of its success, we adopted it across our entire selection process.
“After receiving this feedback, SIF staff chose to eliminate the second round of the written application across all social issue tracks moving forward. In its place, consultants and track partners devoted more attention to site visits. Marquis Victor, a consultant, insisted that the quicker site visits happen, the better. From his perspective, written applications cannot fully capture the identity and work of grassroots nonprofits the way site visits allow.” Shifting Power: The Social Innovation Forum’s Participatory Philanthropy Pilot, page 8
Going through this process together reinforced our core value of deep relationships. The focus on deep relationships allowed us to get honest feedback from participants. This helped us realize that we needed to adjust how we imagined the funder and nonprofit consultant roles. Ultimately, the benefit of those relationships led to new perspectives and deeper understanding for everyone involved. In some cases, the pilot served as a catalyst for relationships that continued beyond the program, seeding the benefits of deep relationships over time.
“At the start of the pilot, the SIF team reversed traditional roles, repositioning track partners from decision-makers to observers and learners. This dynamic proved awkward and unhelpful to both consultants and track partners. Consultants felt like they were in a fishbowl constantly questioning what track partners were thinking. Track partners felt they could not fully engage as learners. During mid-way check-ins with the SIF team, consultants and track partners alike shared they felt it would be more impactful for all parties to actively engage in evaluation discussions, while still reserving decision-making rights for consultants.” Shifting Power: The Social Innovation Forum’s Participatory Philanthropy Pilot, pages 7-8
We are grateful to the nonprofit consultants and track partners whose enthusiasm for trying something new with us made this pilot possible.
Read the full paper to learn more about the learning and transformation that emerged from the process.
About the Author:
Jenna Nackel is the Director of Network Engagement at SIF. She joined the organization in 2019 to help launch the Alumni and Nonprofit Network program. Since then, her work has expanded to include SIF’s Funder Learning program. She is passionate about supporting nonprofits and funders to develop the skills and networks they need to build a more equitable and impactful nonprofit sector.