For years, we have been evolving our approach to grantee and community engagement, focusing on listening to our partners and those impacted by inequities. Since 2020, we have been exploring ways to deepen our equity efforts internally, in our interactions with external partners, and in our approach to strategy, learning, and evaluation. As part of those efforts, we engaged a core set of grantees early in the development of a new grantmaking strategy focused on statewide policy and systems change which ultimately became the Just Prosperity initiative.

We took a deeply collaborative and iterative process to define shared objectives and strategies, while transparently addressing areas of divergence–an approach that shifts away from traditional foundation practices. What made this engagement different and what are the conditions that contribute to authentic and reciprocal grantee-funder relationships?

The Power of Us: Leaning into the Messiness of Authentic Engagement, developed in partnership with Engage R+D, delves into the nuanced learnings from this engagement and ways to tap into the collective knowledge of a diverse group of grantees to share philanthropic strategy and evaluation efforts.

Key insights for supporting equity-centered engagement include:  

• Be open, honest, and transparent about power dynamics and expectations 

• Lean in, listen, and leverage philanthropic influence 

• Demonstrate full commitment at every level of leadership 

• Engage a diverse set of grantees with a shared commitment to the “bigger we”