In the last two years, this five-cylinder engine has propelled funders to break through historic barriers to change.
Global crises of the past two years have yielded at least one silver lining for nonprofits: They have accelerated a movement among grantmakers to match the duration and flexibility of their funding to the arc and demands of change. Such a shift couldn’t come at a more important time for organizations addressing acute threats to climate, health, our social fabric, and world democracy.
Indeed, in a Ford Foundation-commissioned study by MilwayPLUS of leaders of funders and nonprofits that had experienced this shift, we found crises like the COVID-19 pandemic to be one of five key accelerators propelling grantmakers to cover the full costs of achieving mission, in ways that share power with grantees, vest trust, and spur greater impact. Said Larry Kramer, president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation: “COVID was an accelerator in that it forced funders for different reasons to release control, and then they discovered, ‘Oh, it worked just fine…even better.’”
Advocacy for this shift has come in many forms, including The Bridgespan Group’s Pay-What-It-Takes, Philanthropy California’s Full-Cost Project, the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project, and the Ford Foundation’s BUILD initiative. Ultimately, it’s all been a call to more equitable grantmaking. While multi-year, flexible funding is not the entirety of what makes grantmaking more equitable, it is a key entry point for funders seeking to share power with grantees. And it’s something nonprofits have requested for years, with few results.
The top accelerators of change that surfaced in interviews, an in-depth survey, and four focus group discussions with chief executives at nonprofits and funders were the following:
- Getting clear on values
- Listening to feedback from grantees
- Adopting an equity lens on grantmaking
- Responding to group or peer influence
- Reacting to global and political crises
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