The narratives around and approaches to philanthropic practice are evolving in line with shifts in broader society. Concepts of evaluation, lived-experience leadership, power dynamics, and privilege are translated within the philanthropic sector to measuring impact and building evidence, community-leading initiatives, participatory granting structures, and trust-based partnerships. As we tackle putting these into practice in meaningful ways and building our ways of working to support philanthropy to evolve with society, we want to share what we are learning and experiencing with others - not because we think we have all of the answers but because we know that in learning with each other we have the best opportunity to create bigger shifts. 

As someone who is relatively new to the role of funder and navigating the power dynamics inherent in this sector, I want to share some of the Foundation’s approach to trust-based partnership, what we have learnt from putting this into practice, and some personal reflections. Hopefully, this is useful to other funders wanting to partner differently and makes what underpins our partnership approach clearer for our current and future partners. 

Over the past five years, peer-to-peer initiative the ‘Trust-Based Philanthropy Project’ has been developing resources to guide and support what trust-based partnerships look like in practice. The initiative seeks to:

‘address the inherent power imbalances between foundations and nonprofits’ and envisions,  ‘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.’

I’ll be using the values identified by the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project to frame the discussion below. 

At the Foundation, we're committed to funding in a way that avoids perpetuating inequity or harm and instead prioritises community healing, creating opportunities for communities to determine different practices, opportunities, or ways of being that contribute to wellbeing.

In pursuing this, we've taken the time to understand the history of our Foundation and the generation of its wealth, as well as the realities of our community members in South Australia, particularly First Nations communities. We've also reflected on our own experiences and how they've informed the way we see the world.

This journey has led us to prioritise embarking on a Reconciliation Action Plan, actively engaging in cultural learning and taking action to create more equitable practices where we have influence. We've also partnered to develop a First Nations-Led Funding Model, which ensures that practices and decisions are informed and made by those with lived expertise.

In our day to day work, we hold ourselves accountable to continue striving towards making ourselves, the Foundation, and philanthropy more accessible and driven by what's important to the full diversity of our community.

We're constantly learning and challenging ourselves as individuals and professionals, and we believe that it's important to be open and transparent in our work. We're committed to bringing things into the light and creating a culture of trust-based partnering with our community.

As funders, we believe in valuing the expertise of those we work with and respecting their agency and commitment to their own communities. Our role is to support the enabling conditions for them to determine their own priorities, practices, and outcomes.

To achieve this, we've taken the time to explore and challenge our own perceptions and biases around 'expertise' as well as those of our sector. We've listened, learned, and questioned these together as a team.

At a big picture level this value is driving the evolution of our philanthropic practice and strategy with an emphasis on increasing the participatory nature of our decision-making to either be made by or with the inclusion of community and stakeholders across our focus areas. From a funding application perspective this includes practices such as; not requiring all the answers upfront, but instead, supporting the conditions for exploration and learning as well as providing untied funding and budgets for all grants. When it comes to how we approach our partnerships this looks like offering trust and navigating challenges that arise in good faith, while holding community priorities (not our own), at the heart of the work.

Our big lesson has been that the real work doesn't lie in the creation of new processes, but rather in shifting our mindsets and challenging our own values. We believe in imagining new ways of thinking, partnering, and working that honour the diverse experiences of our community and let go of a control mindset.

The Foundation takes a relational partnership approach to our work, investing in relationships as the priority. Being able to have a laugh, and connect on a deeper level enables a greater ability to raise and navigate concerns or challenges on both sides of the partnership. 

We show up as ourselves, and encourage our partners to do the same; creating space to share and build understanding about what gives each other hope, the experiences that inform our work, and where challenges or concerns lie. When we work together with these in mind we have greater sight and understanding of each other's roles and intentions and how these can come together to support us in pursuing a shared purpose. There is complexity in navigating personal and professional, both as a funder and partner, and as someone working to support their community and being of community. By surfacing this we both have a greater ability to navigate competing priorities, and be curious about intentions and actions.

We are intentional and open about how we put this approach into practice, and work to ensure all our information, communications, and interactions are building the conditions for relationship development. This looks like spending time in our meetings to connect more broadly, offering to support and show up at important partner events or meetings, demonstrating humility, encouraging agency around how our relationship works with each partner, and creating opportunities for feedback. 

We have learnt so much about our partners, ourselves, and our work by spending time in place with community; meeting partners where they are has been invaluable to the depth of what we have been able to achieve together.

The Foundation holds our principle; community at the heart at the centre of everything we do. As stewards of community funds, our core purpose is to ensure that any experience of engaging with the Foundation is valuable, whether it be through a funding application, general inquiry, or partnership.

We believe that true partnership involves sharing about ourselves, our past experiences, and skill sets, as well as offering opportunities that can support our partners. We approach each relationship with the mindset of doing our best to support the work of our partners as determined by them, to produce greater outcomes for the community. We do not consider ourselves to be the experts in the work of our partners, but we do work in a very privileged space with access to networks, knowledge, and personal expertise that we can offer to our partners in addition to funding.

Through this approach, we have learned that different partners value our support in different ways. Some may simply want someone to talk to and provide an external perspective, while others may want to access our networks and specific areas of experience. Regardless of the type of support needed, we are committed to being there for our partners, and working alongside them to tackle any challenges that arise.

Accountability is a challenge for many in the Philanthropic sector due to minimal external accountability measures. To bridge this gap we came together to create our own commitments to community and shared accountability practices with those we partner with, with clear commitments and ways to follow up with us.

This looks like developing ways of working aligned with our principles, working openly and sharing our learnings and experiences, inviting and creating pathways for anonymous feedback (and acting on this), as well as regularly checking in about whether we are showing up how we said we would, and in ways that are useful.

I think our biggest learning is bringing humility to this, keeping the conversation on the table, and using it as an opportunity to flex and grow rather than a measure we must always perfectly meet.

The Foundation’s principles adapting as we go and sharing what we learn inform our practices, strategy and funding opportunities. We support each other and our partners to develop the conditions for this way of working, including mindsets to hold, growth in new capabilities, and stopping to reflect and celebrate along the way.

In practice this informs the design of our funding opportunities and application processes, how we approach the development of work with our partners, and how we evaluate our own and partners’ impact. For example, when working with our partners we check-in periodically to reflect on what is being learnt, what has been challenging, as well as how things are progressing and or changing. This puts a focus on practice, intent, and process to enable great outcomes, instead of a focus on outcome delivery.

We have learnt it is about being comfortable and patient, noticing and valuing the gradual, natural ripples of change instead of end of project deliverables, and thinking creatively about how we plan and evaluate to support this approach.

This is an ongoing journey, and I am sure there are many learnings to come. I think the biggest thing we have learnt as a Foundation and what we hold when putting trust-based philanthropy into practice, is that we aren’t the most important voice, perspective or driving force, instead we need to engage deeply in the ecosystem, relationships, history, and dynamics and play the role that is being asked of us.