Series: The Ethos of Being Trust-Based
The Ethos of Being Trust-Based, developed by Trust-Based Philanthropy Project, Philanthropy CA, and Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, is a webinar series dedicated to exploring the fundamental values and dispositions central to a trust-based approach.
At the heart of this work is a deep focus on building trust and relationships at every level, both internally and externally. This requires constant self-examination, cultivation of interpersonal skills, a willingness to reimagine and adjust organizational practices, and an understanding of the greater systemic factors that have given way to the institution of philanthropy as a whole. It requires that we see and name how racial inequities have been perpetuated in our institutions, behaviors, and practices, even as we strive to alleviate them.
Trust-based philanthropy invites us to understand and take action on these ideas at the personal, interpersonal, organizational, and systemic levels in order to interrupt the perpetuation of power imbalances in our sector.
Scroll to browse all videos in the series, or jump to one in particular:
Session #1: Permission to Pause: You Have To Go Slowly To Go Far
Overview:
The work we do in philanthropy—and the work of our nonprofit partners—is not immune to the complexities and chaos of a changing world. Amidst a global pandemic, threats to our democracy, and environmental devastation, we are pushed to be hyperproductive problem-solvers. While these tendencies are brought to bear “in the heat of the moment,” they’re limiting over the long-term, especially when strategic thinking and attuned sensitivities are needed. We cultivate the latter by slowing down, stilling our minds, getting in touch with signals from our body, and allowing the resulting data to inform our action. Beneath our professional titles and roles, trust-based philanthropy acknowledges that we are one piece of a longer arc of time and a larger ecosystem, and that sometimes, we have to go slowly if we want to go far.
Hosted on December 8, 2020
Featured Speakers:
Pia Infante, Co-Executive Director, The Whitman Institute
Supriya Lopez Pillai, Executive Director, Hidden Leaf Foundation
Shruti Jayaraman, Chief Investments Officer, Chicago Beyond
Carlos Medina, Catalyst of San Diego and Imperial Counties (Moderator)
Session #2: Interpersonal Skills: The Hardest Skillbuilding You’ll Ever Do
Overview:
In philanthropy, we sometimes overlook or deprioritize the interpersonal skills required to do this work well. This includes the ability to connect dots, show up in an emotionally intelligent way, listen actively and empathically, and know when to get out of the way. It also requires a clear understanding of power, and how power imbalances between funders and grantee partners are exacerbated by race, gender, and class inequities. Cultivating and advancing effective interpersonal skills requires practitioners to bring self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, and willingness to take multiple perspectives into account.
Hosted on January 12, 2021.
Featured Speakers:
Angel Roberson Daniels, Executive Director, Angell Foundation
John Esterle, Co-Executive Director, The Whitman Institute
Ellen Friedman, Executive Director, Compton Foundation
Chris Murchison, Organizational Culture Consultant & Coach
Kate Seely, Leadership, Culture, and Community Senior Director, Northern California Grantmakers (Moderator)
Session #3: Building Trust Begins at Home: Practices that Advance or Weaken Trust in Your Organization
Overview:
A trust-based culture—one that prioritizes power-sharing, dialogue, transparency, and learning—is essential to cultivating relationships of trust within organizations. Simply put, being a trust-based organization requires there to be trust within your organization—among staff, between staff and board, and between the board and the CEO. When this trust is broken, or if it is never built to begin with, it can seep into the external aspects of your work with the potential of threatening your relationships, credibility, and reputation.
Hosted on February 23, 2021.
Featured Speakers:
Brenda Solórzano, CEO, Headwaters Foundation
Shawn Escoffery, Executive Director, Roy + Patricia Disney Family Foundation
Solomé Lemma, Executive Director, Thousand Currents
Kameron Green, Southern California Grantmakers (moderator)
Session #4: Confronting and Correcting Historical Power Imbalances
Overview:
Trust-based philanthropy is anchored in an understanding of power and privilege, historical and systemic racism and structural oppression, and how these shape people’s realities in profoundly different ways. As grantmakers, we have a responsibility to confront the reality that philanthropy originated from and has often contributed to systemic inequities, both in the ways wealth is accumulated and its dissemination is controlled. While these discussions may be challenging and difficult, this type of self-reflection is fundamental to the work of trust-based philanthropy. As individuals and institutions, we must be willing to recognize historical trauma and systemic power, examine our own relationship to power and money, and be willing to give up some of that power and control in a spirit of service and collaboration with those who are closer to the issues at hand.
Hosted on March 30, 2021.
Featured Speakers:
Ashley Clark, Knowledge & Grants Manager, Libra Foundation
Raymond Foxworth, VP of Grantmaking, Development & Communications, First Nations Development Institute
Nathaniel Smith, Founder & Chief Equity Officer, Partnership for Southern Equity
A. Sparks, Chief Executive Officer, Masto Foundation
Akilah Massey, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (moderator)
Session #5: Reimagining Funder Roles in a Trust-Based Context
Overview:
Trust-based philanthropy encourages us to rethink our notions of traditional philanthropic roles, which tend to prioritize transactions over relationships. In fact, a trust-based approach encourages us to understand our roles as partners working in service of nonprofits and communities. Traditional Philanthropy has institutionalized and perpetuated harmful tropes about funders as experts and nonprofits as needy people who need to be held accountable. This has been perpetuated institutionally through our grantmaking practices, but also in less obvious ways, such as job descriptions, theories of change, program descriptions, and the language we use to describe our work.
Hosted on April 27, 2021.
Featured Speakers:
Dimple Abichandani, Executive Director, General Service Foundation
Gabriela Alcalde, Executive Director, Elmina B. Sewall Foundation
Lisa Pilar Cowan, Vice President, Programs, Robert Sterling Clark Foundation
Carmen Rojas, President & CEO, Marguerite Casey Foundation
Shaady Salehi, Executive Director, Trust-Based Philanthropy Project