Committing to Trust-Based Philanthropy Holds Us Accountable
Stacey Faella, Executive Director, Woodcock Foundation
When I joined the Woodcock Foundation, there was already a strong commitment to multi-year funding and building authentic relationships with our grantees. But from feedback from our partners, we started recognizing that they were dealing with a heavy reporting burden from funders with different requirements. Our Trustees wondered if Woodcock could play a role in encouraging other funders to be more flexible, and my exploration led me to trust-based philanthropy.
When I discovered the trust-based philanthropy practices, they felt entirely fitting. They reflected a lot of what we were already doing, practices we could commit to doing better, and a framework that let us put a stake in the ground. I recognized the opportunity the framework created to institutionalize a set of practices at Woodcock that reflected our principles. We decided to put the trust-based philanthropy language on our website to let our grantees and others know what we were trying to commit to. Once you publicly say something, it puts you on the hook for really doing it– and that was part of our intention, to create accountability for us.
One of the practices of trust-based philanthropy is to solicit and act on feedback. We also conducted a short survey of our grantees, asking them about our reporting process and what would be easier for them, as well as what funders could do better more broadly. We actually got a pretty mixed set of responses about what kinds of reporting would work best. Some grantees really wanted a reporting template, some wanted a phone call and no written report, some wanted to do a written report and didn’t need a template. In response, we changed our practices to provide options. Our grantees can send a written report, and we offer a template as an example for those who prefer one. They can also have a phone call with us in lieu of a written report, or they can send us something they already have on hand, like a report they recently wrote for another funder or their annual report. We wanted to take the burden off them, and we realized that a one-size-fits-all approach didn’t work. We wrote to all of our grantees who participated in the survey to let them know what we had heard and how we were responding. We wanted to make sure they knew their feedback mattered and that it had influenced us. That’s what builds relationship, rather than leaving it as a transaction.
Even though we work to have strong relationships with our grantees, we’re still part of the funding ecosystem. In our process of trying to be accountable to grantees, there’s always some degree of a power dynamic inevitably showing up in the relationship. We can use a set of practices to guide us, but trust really is the north star. The goal is to create an environment where all nonprofit leaders feel trusted– where they truly believe that every funder fully values the services they’re providing and trusts them to make decisions. Unless we achieve that, there are going to be plenty of times where it doesn’t feel possible for organizations to be totally honest when we ask for feedback.
We all have to recognize that we’re operating within a system that has done a lot to make things difficult for grant-seeking organizations. We’re asking them to trust us, and the institutions surrounding us, without giving them enough evidence that the trust is reciprocal. If broader philanthropy really committed to trust-based practices, it would go a very, very long way. Trust-based practices enable the organizations we care about to have more impact, work more efficiently, and make the pivots they need to make. It also creates a certain sense of dignity–a sense of freedom for nonprofit leaders in their ability to lean into the greatest kind of impact in their organizations and feel supported doing that. So when I’m making decisions or interacting with our grantees, I try to remember to ask myself, am I demonstrating trust?