Navigating Tensions When Adopting Participatory Learning: Strategies and Recommendations to Consider
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Organizational resources—along with learning culture and commitment to equity—are essential to adopting participatory learning practices. But challenges or tensions may arise when this buy-in from foundation leaders and colleagues is not apparent, or is tough to secure. In our new field resource, Fostering Participatory Learning Practices in Philanthropy: A Guide for the Curious, we identify common challenges, approaches, and strategies—drawn from interviews with numerous funders—that prevail in the infusion of participatory approaches. It is important to note that recognizing and managing these tensions can be a more realistic goal than resolving them.
Tension: As the field of philanthropy shifts towards participatory practices and sharing power with communities, long-established norms and practices pulling in the opposite direction can be slow to evolve. Strategies to ease this tension include:
Encourage reflection by opening conversation about conventional philanthropy’s assumptions and biases, and consider which communities the foundation aims to serve and whether participatory learning approaches would help or harm your mission.
Emphasize mission alignment by emphasizing that sharing power with grantees and communities amplifies your foundation’s impact, along with offering new ideas, more effective solutions, and stronger community buy-in.
Tension: Resistance to or lack of enthusiasm for participatory learning among some executive leaders, board members, and program staff can stymie efforts to integrate these approaches. Strategies to ease this tension include:
Bridge participatory learning with strategic objectives by demonstrating how participatory practices align with the foundation’s goals, and emphasizing that power-sharing enriches decision-making and strategy rather than compromising the foundation’s direction.
Recruit champions of participatory approaches on staff and collaborate with them on messaging, sharing experiences, and taking steps toward fostering buy-in. If executive leaders are on board, ask them to endorse participatory practices as part of a culture of learning.
Tension: Leadership does not always support the cost and time needed to commission and implement participatory work, nor are these always built into projects. Strategies to ease this tension include:
Secure commitment for realistic resourcing by encouraging learning and program staff to budget for time and resources to engage grantees and community members in participatory work, including for building relationships and trust and compensating participants.
Benchmark against best practices by connecting with peer foundations that have successfully integrated participatory approaches into their grantmaking—enabling your foundation to balance the demands of participatory work with organizational capacity.
As you reflect on these challenges and tensions, along with the recommended strategies to navigate them, you might also consider several questions that can help you identify steps for shifting culture and practice. We share these questions—which focus on the value and power of advancing participatory learning approaches—in our Guide. And we encourage you to use these questions as a starting point for discussions within your organization.
We look forward to hearing about your experiences!
