What We Do
The Trust-Based Philanthropy Project is a funder-to-funder advocacy initiative to make equitable grantmaking and community accountability the standard of practice for effective philanthropy.
We believe that advancing a just and equitable society requires philanthropy to shift away from a donor-centric mindset toward a community-centric one. This transformation often begins when funders reimagine grantmaking practices to facilitate greater trust, transparency, and mutuality in their relationships with nonprofits—but it goes much deeper. A fully trust-based approach includes a commitment to aligning organizational cultures, structures, and leadership with an ethos of equity and collaboration.
Since 2020, the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project has supported a growing network of funders who are operationalizing trust-based philanthropy as a strategy for social impact. We build tools, facilitate peer networking, and offer insights and learnings to help funders take steps toward a fully embodied commitment to trust-based philanthropy.
Our Vision
We envision a world where relationships are built on vulnerability, transparency, and humility; where community and nonprofit leaders are valued, supported, and trusted; and where funders bring an awareness of power and equity to their grantmaking. In this future, funders work alongside communities and nonprofits to understand what is needed and how they can creatively and expansively leverage their assets to advance positive change.
Our History
The roots of trust-based philanthropy trace back to The Whitman Institute, a San Francisco-based foundation that sunsetted in 2022. The foundation’s leaders, John Esterle and Pia Infante, approached their role as supporters and amplifiers of their grantee partners. They focused on building deep relationships with their partners, listening to their needs, and serving as co-conspirators in realizing their missions. Multi-year, unrestricted support became a pillar of their approach, as did restorative retreats, dialogic learning exchanges in place of written reports, and holistic support for nonprofit leaders.
Responding to feedback from their grantee partners, John and Pia focused a significant portion of The Whitman Institute’s final ten years inviting funders to interrogate power imbalances in their philanthropy. To ground their peer organizing, they coined their approach “trust-based philanthropy” – inspired directly from grantee input about the importance of a mutually trusting funder-grantee relationship.
This early organizing planted the seeds for what would eventually become the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project, a dedicated community of practice launched in 2020 to support the adoption of trust-based philanthropy sector-wide. Since then, a growing number of funders have embraced the approach, recognizing that the path to social impact is more effective when funders operate with a sense of collective accountability to nonprofits and communities. As the field of philanthropy undergoes unprecedented shifts to advance more equitable and power-conscious approaches, the Project has evolved to meet the growing needs and priorities of the sector.
Acknowledgments
This work has been made possible through the tireless efforts of many foundation and nonprofit leaders who have helped us build out this movement, notably our co-founders: John Esterle, Pia Infante, Shaady Salehi, Brenda Solorzano, Phil Li, and Lisa Cowan. We are also grateful to our steering committee members who contributed guidance and thought leadership during the early stages of our work: Phil Li of Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, Brenda Solorzano formerly of Headwaters Foundation, Carrie Avery formerly of Durfee Foundation, Solome Lemma of Thousand Currents, Sarah Walczyk of Satterberg Foundation, Dimple Abichandani formerly of General Service Foundation, John Brothers of T. Rowe Price Foundation, Pamela Ross formerly of Indianapolis Foundation, and Gabriela Alcalde of Elmina B. Sewall Foundation. We also want to acknowledge key staff who have helped us fortify and strengthen our efforts throughout our evolution: Maya Trabin, Ayushi Vig, Caitlan Cole, Eddie Whitfield, Eleni Refu, Rashanda Freeman, Chantias Ford, and Danielle LaJoie.
