A Toolkit for Creating More Inclusive Funder Collaboratives
This resource is designed to help funders, particularly those working in collaborative groups with other donors, advance better listening, inclusivity, and equity in their work.
Fund for Shared Insight believes that philanthropy should be better informed by the people whose lives are impacted by its strategy and grantmaking decisions. And as more and more funders join us in committing to this ideal, we are pleased to offer resources to help, such as “Listening & Feedback,” a funder action menu you can find here.
Here, we offer a three-step toolkit specifically designed for funder collaboratives. Collaboratives are increasingly common and have increasingly signaled interest in wanting not only to listen better to people whose voices have been excluded or left out, but also meaningfully include those voices in their work. This toolkit will help collaboratives identify groups that are underrepresented in their decision-making and includes a menu of ideas and approaches to start making change.
We suggest that users read the full introduction to learn more about this resource and how we hope it will be used to advance equity, then move on to complete the worksheets. Individual members of a collaborative might complete the worksheets on their own, then come together to discuss their answers and thoughts about next steps.
This resource is licensed under Creative Commons so is open for all to use and adapt. We plan to add to and improve it over time. If you have ideas or feedback, please email rick@fundforsharedinsight.org.
For more information on collaboratives, read this article by Alison Powell, Susan Wolf Ditkoff, and Fay Twersky.
