The Power of Us: Leaning into the Messiness of Authentic Engagement

Over the years, foundations and evaluation practitioners have been engaging grantees and community members in evaluation through advisory groups, sensemaking, and learning spaces. Typically, grantees are brought into evaluation long after a foundation’s strategy has been defined, diminishing their influence and power in defining success and shaping funding strategies and approaches. As a result, evaluation continues to be largely in service of foundation needs rather than the collective change efforts of grantees. Without intentional practices to engage grantees iteratively, continuously, and authentically, foundation-funded evaluations continue to maintain the status quo. 

What practices and conditions help us move beyond listening and feedback toward more authentic, equitable, and powerful grantee-funder collaboration?  This reflection brief explores the meaning of authentic engagement by surfacing insights from the development of Just Prosperity, a statewide advocacy initiative of The James Irvine Foundation.  Co-authored in partnership with members of the Irvine Impact Assessment and Learning team, we explore what it takes to move beyond soliciting grantee feedback towards a trust-based philanthropy that embraces “the power of us.”