“Philanthropy is, by its very existence, evidence of disproportionate wealth held by a small number of people and families and the high level of need at the end of that spectrum,” said Lori Bezahler in an interview with NPQ.
Bezahler is the president of the Edward W. Hazen Foundation, a philanthropic organization that has existed for nearly 100 years, supporting the leadership of young people and communities of color in their fight against racism and classism. After a period of deep listening and learning from its grantees, the foundation made a commitment in 2019 to spend down its assets, and recently announced that it was closing in 2024.
“Philanthropy is, by its very existence, evidence of disproportionate wealth held by a small number of people and families and the high level of need at the end of that spectrum.”
Before the foundation officially closed its doors, it dispersed its final grants—moving $3.75 million to 43 nonprofit organizations. In a final report, Reevaluating Practice: Reimagining Philanthropy, the Hazen Foundation shares lessons with other funders about how philanthropy can be more equitable and combat the inherent power imbalance between funders and grantees.
The Disparity between Funders and Grantees
According to Bezahler, the Hazen Foundation began to think more deeply about the power imbalance within philanthropy following the 2016 presidential election. After witnessing the trauma many people in organizations across the country experienced in the wake of the election, leaders at the foundation saw an opportunity to lean into the moment and think differently about how they work with grantees.
Though the Hazen Foundation had historically been an organization informed by the needs and concerns of marginalized people, it began listening sessions to incorporate grantees’ specific needs into funding practices. Over several months, the foundation asked grantees to share their experiences.
These experiences form the basis of the recently released report. During this learning process, the Hazen Foundation leaned on leaders in the field to help it design a plan for grantmaking and other activities, such as research and communications within the field. In response to the request of grantees, the foundation also initiated a five-year spend-down strategy that included multiyear general operational support, consulting, training, peer learning, and other resources.
Grantees discussed how they are inevitably dependent upon funders for their organizations’ survival. Instead of pretending this power imbalance does not exist, the report encourages funders to name and confront it. The report notes that “grantees feel the disparity immediately and ignoring it only reinforces it.”
In the report, Viridiana Hernandez, the executive director of Poder in Action, an organization that builds power to disrupt and dismantle systems of oppression, points to the Satterberg Foundation as an example of a funder actively working to reevaluate its relationship with grantees.
As Hernandez notes, Satterberg actively engages in trust-based philanthropy. Instead of having organizations reapply for funds each year, they distribute general operating funds with multiyear commitments. “Satterberg understands that they are hoarding resources that don’t belong to them, and their goal is to move that money to organizations like ours,” Hernandez said.
In addition to confronting the power imbalance, the report also encourages foundations to build authentic partnerships through transparency and vulnerability. Alicia Olivarez, the associate director at Power California, a statewide multiracial civic engagement organization, notes that it’s helpful when program officers are transparent enough to tell grantees what they need to advocate for them more effectively.
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Organizations that work most directly with impacted people more deeply understand their problems and how to address them.
A More Equitable Approach to Funding
Through consulting with grantees, the Hazen Foundation was able to garner several suggestions from the field about how funders can develop better relationships with grantees:
- Value an organization’s time
- Make your criteria and processes clear
- Provide opportunities for questions
- Be mindful of the time it takes to complete an application
- Expand your perspectives
- Provide feedback
- Audit your processes and systems of accessibility
- Counter the competition generated by most traditional application processes
- Boost the visibility of organizations
In the report, Lori Bezahler was lifted up as someone who had intentionally sought to build a trust-based relationship with her grantees. Elsa Bañuelos-Lindsay, the executive director of Movimiento Poder—a Colorado nonprofit led by working-class Latine immigrants, queer people, youth, women, and families building collective power—noted that she was able to come to Bezahler and explain some obstacles she was facing. Bezahler took the time to help Bañuelos-Lindsay think more clearly about her organization’s vision, mission, and theory of change.
Bezahler also provided Bañuelos-Lindsay with seed money that allowed her to be able to hire a coach. “Without that seed money and Lori’s willingness to push me in a respectful way, I don’t think we would be in the place we are now as an organization,” Bañuelos-Lindsay said. Likewise, Bezahler told NPQ that she sees trust-based philanthropy as “one example of trying to codify and implement a new way of being in philanthropy.”
Organizations that work most directly with impacted people more deeply understand their problems and how to address them. That is why the report notes that it is imperative for funders to value on-the-ground knowledge. This also means understanding that because organizations are often fighting to combat deeply entrenched systems like White supremacy, the problems likely will not be solved within a funding cycle. But that does not mean the work is not worth it. The report urges funders to reimagine their role in designing strategy by allowing grantees to take more of a leadership role that better suits their needs.
“[Some in philanthropy] are stuck, unsure of the risk they are willing to take to use their power to challenge the fields we have helped sustain.”
The emphasizes the need for funders to respect the values and practices of the communities they fund and collaborate with organizations, not control their work. It lifts up the Trans Justice Funding Project as an organization that has created a model of philanthropy that is entirely designed, driven, and enacted by the communities it serves.
Throughout the report, the Hazen Foundation emphasizes that organizations have a responsibility to interrogate how they got their wealth to begin with. In spending down its own assets, the Hazen Foundation has shown other philanthropists how to combat the power imbalance in philanthropy head-on. In doing so, it has issued a call to action, urging foundations to more fully understand what it might look like to redistribute their resources to the communities they serve.
“Many of our peers are far along in examining their grantmaking philosophy and practice. Others are just beginning,” the report reads. “Still, others are stuck, unsure of the risk they are willing to take to use their power to challenge the fields we have helped sustain. We hope that this report serves as a steppingstone for action.”
