Background
In early 2020, we responded to the devastating effects of the twin pandemics of COVID-19 and global social injustice by issuing $125 million in social bonds to help stabilize and sustain partners in the nonprofit sector. This Equitable Recovery Initiative was an opportunity for the Foundation to disrupt historical philanthropic practices and internal practices and processes.
What we Examined
This report summarizes grantmaking efforts for the first year of our Equitable Recovery Initiative based on early reflections from our Staff and external advisors and a grantee demographic survey. This initial report shares progress and challenges toward our goals of disrupting traditional philanthropic, organizational, and grantmaking practices.
What We Learned
Some high-level findings include:
- Disruption of traditional philanthropic practices: Our preliminary analysis of the grantee demographic survey shows us that BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) organizations were given priority in the grantmaking.
- Disruption of status quo organizational practices: External advisors’ feedback played an essential role in shaping the approach and our funding decisions during the second phase of grantmaking. Non-programmatic Staff gained experiences in grantmaking.
- Disruption of status quo grantmaking processes: We used this initiative as an opportunity to experiment with a few grantee-centered practices, including accepting proposals for general operating grants that were previously submitted to other funders to save grantee time.
An additional report from our evaluation and learning partner, the Creative Research Solutions (CRS) team, will be forthcoming.