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Participatory Philanthropy Toolkit

Learn how to integrate participatory practices that share decision making, build trust, and shift power.
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Participatory Philanthropy: Discussions and Hot Topics

From Insights for Change, the latest news, case studies, and opinion pieces on participatory philanthropy and related topics. Use the ideas and inspiration found here to inform your work with the Participatory Philanthropy Toolkit.

Fund for Shared Insight meeting
  • Stories, Videos

Reflecting on 12 Years of Fund for Shared Insight: A Video
SC2
  • Stories, Videos

A Silicon Valley Funder Rethinks the Power It Holds

  • Fund for Shared Insight
Conflicts of Interest in Participatory Grantmaking: Addressing, Destigmatizing, and Embracing Interconnectedness
  • News, Tools

Conflicts of Interest in Participatory Grantmaking: Addressing, Destigmatizing, and Embracing Interconnectedness

  • Katy Love and Winifred Olliff
  • Fund for Shared Insight
Four men standing in front of photos of their children lost to violence, including by the police
  • Stories, Videos

How Participatory Grantmaking Supports a Community-Driven Vision of Safety

  • Jeree Thomas
  • Borealis Philanthropy
Mosaic of insights for change posts
  • News

Looking Back at 2024: Our 10 Most Popular Blog Posts

  • Rick Moyers
  • Fund for Shared Insight
Graphic Paying Participants: Compensation in Participatory Philanthropy
  • News, Tools

Paying Participants: Compensation in Participatory Philanthropy

  • Katy Love and Winifred Olliff
  • Fund for Shared Insight
Katy Love joins her Fund for Shared Insight colleague Jonathan Brack, Kolibri Foundation’s Eileen Farbman, and Brooklyn Org’s Sabrina Hargrave, on a Philanthropy New York webinar.

Insights from “Responding to the Moment: Participatory Approaches in Philanthropy”

  • Katy Love
  • Fund for Shared Insight
two women preparing food in a commercial kitchen
  • Stories

Grantmaking as Bumper Bowling: A Community Foundation’s Journey towards Shifting and Sharing Power

  • Anne Meysenburg and Dasia Horne
  • Omaha Community Foundation
Pacific Golden Plover (pluvialis fulva) standing on a volcanic rock near a young pine tree sapling. Nearby pond is in the background. In Hilo, Hawaii.

Tensions in Funder Learning: Reflections on a Participatory Grantmaking Initiative

  • Melinda Tuan
  • Fund for Shared Insight
Listening, Responding and Shifting Power podcast
  • News

Listening, Responding, and Shifting Power

  • Filantropía Puerto Rico Podcast
  • with Melinda Tuan
Participatory Philanthropy Toolkit graphic
  • News, Tools

An Update for Our Participatory Philanthropy Toolkit
Dr. Jocelynne Rainey (lower left), president and CEO of Brooklyn Org, participates in a Listening Tour session in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.
  • Stories

Representing Brooklyn from the Ground Up

  • Sabrina Hargrave
  • Brooklyn Org
Brooklyn Org Listens Neighborhood to Neighborhood Video
  • Stories, Videos

Brooklyn Org Listens Neighborhood to Neighborhood
Advancing Participation in Philanthropy Tool (APPT)
  • News, Tools

A New Tool for Advancing Participation in Philanthropy

  • Katy Love and Diana Samasaran
A strategy planning meeting at ACT for Alexandria.
  • Stories

Listen, Learn, Act: One Funder’s Lessons from a Participatory Strategy Process

  • Heather Peeler
  • ACT for Alexandria
Weaving Trust-Based Philanthropy into a Participatory Initiative

Weaving Trust-Based Philanthropy into a Participatory Initiative

  • Winifred Olliff and Katy Love
  • via The Center for Effective Philanthropy
Evaluating What Matters: Capturing Meaningful Outcomes in Participatory Grantmaking Processes

Evaluating What Matters: Capturing Meaningful Outcomes in Participatory Grantmaking Processes

  • Cecilia Borges Farfan
  • ORS Impact
What Impact Can Participatory Philanthropy Have? Ask the Participants

What Impact Can Participatory Philanthropy Have? Ask the Participants

  • Katy Love
  • Fund for Shared Insight
The Most Significant Changes Resulting from Fund for Shared Insight’s Participatory Climate Initiative

The Most Significant Changes Resulting from Fund for Shared Insight’s Participatory Climate Initiative 

  • ORS Impact
Reflections on a Participatory Philanthropy Initiative

A Funder’s Reflections on a Participatory Philanthropy Initiative

  • Claire Poelking
  • John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
“Can you see me?” asked Artis Romero Burney, a poet and community activist
  • Videos

A Look at Shared Insight’s Participatory Philanthropy Project
Volunteers in Medicine's Kelly Ranieli with a sign about the nonprofit's medical translation service.
  • Stories

A Funder Collaborative Shares Feedback Advice after Working with Grantees to Listen4Good

  • Fund for Shared Insight
Photo by Brandon Green on Unsplash
  • News, Tools

Introducing a New Participatory Philanthropy Toolkit

  • Winifred Olliff and Katy Love
Image of tidepool

Learning to ‘Embrace the Beauty of What Exists’: A Conversation About Participatory Grantmaking
Participatory Grantmaking & Meditations on Power-ORS Impact

More than Money: Participatory Grantmaking and Perceptions of Power

  • Sarah Stachowiak
  • ORS Impact
ORS_Meditations on Power

Some Lessons from Participatory Grantmaking and Meditations on Power for the Field

  • Sarah Stachowiak
  • ORS Impact
Participatory Grantmaking & Meditations on Power-ORS Impact
  • Videos

Participatory Grantmaking & Meditations on Power

  • ORS Impact
Participatory Climate Initiative, Learnings and Reflections
  • Videos

Participatory Grantmaking: Learnings and Reflections
The Nuts & Bolts of Participatory Design
  • Videos

The Nuts & Bolts of Participatory Design

Have questions about the toolkit? Or want to learn more?

Please reach out to our program manager Katy Love who co-authored the toolkit with Winifred Olliff, both consultants with experience and expertise in participatory grantmaking.

Contact
Katy Love

Our Appreciation

Fund for Shared Insight would like to express deep gratitude to all who participated in, supported, and contributed to our Participatory Climate Initiative, on which this toolkit is based.  We especially thank:

  • A-dae Briones
  • Austin Ahmasuk
  • Billy Kinney
  • Cynthia Naha
  • Donald Bogen
  • Elsie DuBray
  • Garett Blaize
  • Janiece Watts
  • Jayeesha Dutta
  • Reverend Leo Woodberry
  • Lindsay Louie
  • Rosalinda Guillen
  • Soledad Gaztambide Arandes
  • A-dae Briones
  • Annie Jane Cotten
  • Austin Ahmasuk
  • Billy Kinney
  • Cicely “CC” Moore
  • Crystal Yankawgé Nelson
  • Dewey Kk’ołeyo Hoffman
  • Donald Bogen
  • Fix Cain
  • Garett Blaize
  • Jayeesha Dutta
  • Katia R. Avilés Vázquez
  • Kilia Purdy-Avelino
  • Melinda Tuan
  • Miwa Tamanaha
  • Reverend Leo Woodberry
  • Aimalama
  • Bering Sea Elders Group
  • Chickaloon Native Village
  • Hui Maka’ainana o Makana
  • Inuit Circumpolar Council-Alaska
  • Kamiloloa One Ali’i Homestead Association
  • Kawerak
  • KUA
  • Laulima Kuha’O
  • Maui Nui Makai Network
  • Organized Village of Kake
  • Organized Village of Savoonga
  • Organized Village of Shaktoolik
  • Punana O Kaiona
  • Roots Program (Kōkua Kalihi Valley)
  • Tanana Chiefs Conference
  • Village of Port Heiden
  • Waimea Homestead
  • Alliance of Native Seedkeepers
  • Another Gulf is Possible/Otro Golfo es Posible
  • Colmena Cimarrona
  • Cosmic Poetry Sanctuary
  • Ekvn-Yefolecv
  • Hijra House
  • IDEBAJO
  • ISER Caribe
  • Living Hope Wheelchair Association
  • New Alpha CDC
  • North Carolina Climate Justice Collective
  • Nottoway Tribe of Virginia
  • Sejah Farm, St. Croix
  • SouthCentral Louisiana CDC
  • Southeastern African American Farmers’ Organic Network (SAAFON)
  • Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards
  • Stay Together Appalachian Youth Project
  • Alaska Venture Fund
  • Another Gulf is Possible/Otro Golfo es Posible
  • Appalachian Community Fund
  • Climate Justice Alliance
  • Dogwood Alliance
  • Filantropía Puerto Rico
  • First Nations Development Institute
  • Foundation for Louisiana
  • Hawaii Community Foundation
  • Headwaters Foundation
  • Kua’aina Ulu ‘Auamo
  • Native Americans in Philanthropy
  • Quivira Coalition
  • Spruce Root

Anna Loizeaux, JPB Foundation
Ciciley “CC” Moore, WK Kellogg Foundation
Chris Cardona, Ford Foundation
Claire Poelking, MacArthur Foundation
Doua Thor, Sobrato Philanthropies
Genny Biggs, Moore Foundation
Jamaica Maxwell, Packard Foundation
Jennifer Chavez Rubio, Gates Foundation
Jennifer Ryan, Moore Foundation
Jessica Kiessel, Omidyar Network
Karla Ruiz, Sobrato Philanthropies
Kate Barnes, MacArthur Foundation
Linda Baker, Packard Foundation
Lindsay Louie, Hewlett Foundation
Rachel Huguet, Hilton Foundation
Shaheen Hasan, Target Foundation
Shaheen Kassim-Lakha, Hilton Foundation
Trevor Pollack, Barr Foundation

  • Anne Nsimbi
  • Debbie Blum
  • Gita Gulati-Partee
  • Jaqueline Hartley
  • Katy Love
  • Meenakshi Abbi
  • Melinda Tuan
  • Michelle Mengel
  • Rick Moyers
  • Sarah Stachowiak
  • Winifred Olliff
  • Annie Jane Cotten
  • Artis Burney
  • Braulio Quintero
  • Camille Hebert
  • Claire Poelking
  • Dale KK Browne
  • Elda Guadalupe Carrasquillo
  • Jayeesha Dutta
  • Jodi Lasseter
  • Kaiulani Odom
  • Karla Ruiz
  • Katia R. Avilés-Vázquez
  • Rev. Leo Woodberry
  • Liana Lopez
  • Loretta Slater
  • Marselle Alexander-Ozinskas
  • Osvaldo Capmany
  • Roberto Thomas
  • Rory Neuner
  • Sydney Underwood
  • Taysha DeVaughan
  • Whitney Jaye
  • Yvonne Belanger
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