Grantee Perspective: The Deep Architecture of Trust
For several years, Paula Daniels was an executive of a large, visible frontline public sector department, and then became a Senior Advisor to the mayor of Los Angeles. After receiving a Stanton Fellowship from the Durfee Foundation in 2012 to explore a thorny challenge in her policy area, Paula realized the profound power of a culture built on trust. Since then, she has gone on to solve many challenges, and is now Chief of What’s Next at the Center for Good Food Purchasing. She also currently sits on the Durfee Foundation board of trustees as a community trustee.
The power of trust runs much deeper than a solid interpersonal relationship. When trust is built into our culture and systems, it allows for transparency, invention, innovation, and an openness to rethinking the status quo. But a pre-requisite for building trust is recognizing—and addressing—power dynamics.
In traditional philanthropy, there is a one-sided seesaw of power. The funder holds all the power while the grantee dangles in the air holding a fragile crucible of need, waiting for the grantor to make the next move, and wondering helplessly what it might be.
In such a context, what does it take for those in power to build and nurture a culture of trust? I’ve come to realize that trust has a deep architecture, and is built one respectful brick at a time.
My first experience with an organization rooted in trust was with The Durfee Foundation in Los Angeles. I was fortunate to be awarded their two-year Stanton Fellowship, which funds awardees to explore ideas that they would not otherwise have the time and resources to. The grant concept can be described in many ways. To me, above all, it is a gift of trust.
There were three aspects of this trust-based award, that made it so valuable and enriching: (1) partnership-based accountability; (2) the faith in and investment in my ability to think creatively; and (3) uniquely important, Durfee trusted my instincts about what strategies to pursue—even if it meant taking a different, more tributary path than I originally set out to do.
Here’s what that looked like: I was moving full steam ahead on the Big Idea that my grant was initially focused on, addressing food insecurity through a network of sustainable indoor aquaculture systems. However, I uncovered an issue that stopped me in my tracks: the prevailing model of producing feed for the fish was unsustainable itself. I didn’t see how I could promote aquaculture as a sustainable option until the underlying issue was solved.
I felt I had to pivot toward that deeper problem nested within the already-thorny problem I set out to address. That meant I needed to figure out how to solve The Thornier Problem first, which meant changing my entire plan.
If my grant had been based on outcomes, my pivot would have been considered a failure. But Durfee did not define my pivot that way. They were invested our relationship, and they trusted in my track record as a problem solver.
The only deliverable I was accountable for was keeping them informed in a timely fashion. The only outcome they hoped for was that I would understand the problem better, and be much closer to figuring what needed to be done about it—even if it turned out to be something outside of the original hypothesis.
This deep trust opened up doors for me. It allowed me to step into a new world of policy opportunities, and to build deeper relationships to help solve The Thornier Problem. When I was supported in my pivot, I become an advocate for the solution, and was able to bring it to the attention of policy makers and others.
As of 2018, $406 million in start-up funding has been invested to address a promising solution to The Thornier Problem. Projections are that by 2023 there will be $1.2 billion invested in the idea. I don’t take credit for that, but I do know that my involvement would not have been possible without the support and trust I received from the Durfee Foundation.
That trust had other resonance: it helped me believe in my hunches. The flexibility to follow my instincts where they took me helped sharpen trust in my own intuition. As we address and try to make progress on seemingly intractable problems in this fast-moving and often confusing world, instincts and intuition may be our best North Star.