Recognizing the Value of Time, Knowledge, and Expertise: Practices for Fair and Equitable Compensation
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As funders consider the benefits of a participatory learning approach—such as cultivating trust with grantees; embracing a commitment to equity; and transforming data collection into strategic insight—they must also acknowledge the importance of compensating grantees and community members for time to contribute expertise and knowledge.
In our new field resource, Fostering Participatory Learning Practices in Philanthropy: A Guide for the Curious, we share recommendations for offering fair and equitable compensation to participants in learning and evaluation activities. These recommendations include:
Ensuring you have funds available to equitably compensate community members for their time and expertise—such as including compensation funding in grants to community organizations or in evaluation contracts.
Compensating community members appropriately based on their level of engagement—such as gift cards for one-time interviews; honoraria plus food, travel, and accommodation expenses for speaking at foundation events; and hourly compensation to community or nonprofit leaders for project work, in line with external consultant fees.
Minimizing reporting requirements (e.g., ensuring the payment process will be streamlined and timely); and communicating early and throughout the engagement about documentation required to facilitate compensation.
Documenting and centralizing background information that could be useful later in the project or in future work—such as organizational charts that focus on processing compensation; landscape scans of market wages for roles; and justification for compensation levels.
Acknowledging community members’ efforts and knowledge by facilitating connections to resources, funders, or partners; supporting professional development; and supporting participant-identified community groups; and providing services such as website or fundraising consulting.
Let us know what you think about these recommendations for fair and equitable compensation. Have you applied any of these practices to your grantmaking? If so, how have they worked? Are there additional practices that you’d like to recommend? You can share your stories with us at info@engagerd.com. We look forward to hearing from you.
Note: In developing these fair and equitable compensation guidelines, we drew from resources developed by the Urban Institute and Leap Partners, and a blog post from Melinda Tuan of the Fund for Shared Insight.
