Philanthropy and Community Sharing Power: What It Looks Like from the Field’s Perspective

Today, with American democracy wavering, federal funding for programs evaporating, and power imbalances surging across the United States, it is more vital than ever for those of us who are most affected by social issues to influence decisions that affect our lives. This is especially true in housing where top-down initiatives often fail to reflect or adequately address the challenges that we see every day on the ground.

More robust solutions to housing affordability and homelessness require a more intentional, respectful, and non-extractive process that aligns our communities’ priorities with those of philanthropic partners that remain committed to addressing these pressing challenges of our time.

A growing number of Americans are priced out of a safe place to call home, yet drastic cuts in public funding for affordable housing have decimated many of the very institutions and organizations trying to fix the problem, large and small alike. Yet, an increasing number of private funders have pulled away from initiatives that seek to level the playing field or change the narrative, fearful of putting their own funding streams at risk. Their hesitation comes at the very moment when communities most need supporters to step up quickly. Those of us on the front lines are having to rebuild our capacities and regain momentum, while trying to move forward. In the worst cases, some community organizations have stopped working on housing entirely. The bottom line is that the housing justice field is at a pivotal point.

More robust solutions to housing affordability and homelessness require a more intentional, respectful, and non-extractive process that aligns our communities’ priorities with those of philanthropic partners that remain committed to addressing these pressing challenges of our time.

As housing organizers, advocates, and practitioners, we each have been invited at different points in our work to speak about our experiences. These invitations can come with real curiosity and even urgency. We’re asked to share our stories and help funders understand what’s happening. What the invitations don’t always come with is a say in what happens next. It’s not that philanthropy lacks interest in community voices. It’s just that, too often, that is where the exchange stops.

Over the past year, six of us who work on the front lines of housing justice in communities across the country have been in closer conversation with philanthropy, through a Community Advisors Program at the Fund for Housing and Opportunity (FHO), a grantmaking collaborative working to protect renters and solve homelessness. Through this program, we learned how philanthropic staff make decisions, set priorities, and structure their relationships with communities. We also looked at what encourages power sharing, what gets in the way, and what begins to change when funders try to do things differently. As part of this initiative, we were invited to share community perspectives with FHO and other funders.

Drawing from our learnings with FHO’s program and our lived experience, here, we share a summary of what we want philanthropic funders to know so we can all move closer to shared power and meeting our missions.

Funders Can Respectfully Interact with Community in Mutually Beneficial and Non-extractive Ways

Advancing opportunity for all—particularly communities disproportionately impacted by systemic challenges—requires translating shared values into practice by engaging communities in more intentional, respectful, and non-extractive ways. The following recommendations offer practical steps funders can take, starting now.

1. Consider visiting communities to see what’s happening firsthand. Nothing shows respect and gains our trust quite like visiting communities in person. Come see the “boots on the ground” with your own eyes and authentically connect community members whose lived experiences and leadership are shaping local solutions. At the same time, approach visits with care. Coordinate closely with grantee partners so your visits are thoughtful, welcomed, and do not create additional burdens for the communities you seek to support. Avoid unannounced visits and be mindful of the power dynamics at play so that people feel comfortable and respected rather than scrutinized.

As you do this, leverage your grantee networks to find people who are deeply embedded in the community—not self-proclaimed representatives. Find people who have their ear to the ground and be discerning by relying on community partners and advocates to understand who’s doing good effective, trusted work—and who isn’t.

2. Be transparent about your funding strategy. Be clear about what you are and are not willing to fund—and explain why. That information helps us, as potential grant recipients, to understand that when you choose to support something other than our project, you’re doing so with vision and intentionality.

3. Work in partnership with us. Recognize and value the expertise, lived experience, and relational connections that community leaders bring to this work and treat their knowledge as essential to identifying and shaping effective solutions.

View us as colleagues and extend an invitation—not a directive—to play a role in the projects you fund. Directing our involvement, as community partners, keeps uneven power dynamics intact that can undermine authentic collaboration.

Find and create opportunities for us to share our knowledge. These could include peer exchanges between organizations or cities; workshops that involve case studies of our communities’ work; participation in grantmaking decisions where we do not have to recuse ourselves due to conflicts of interest; and training on practical topics, such as how to pursue sizeable grants or how to persuade funders to invest in the physical construction of housing.

4. Commit to more frequent, meaningful communication that prioritizes relationships over transactions. Reach out frequently to ask for ideas or suggestions. Listen to the people most closely connected to the community and trust our perspectives. When working in places where philanthropic language and reporting requirements are unfamiliar, reduce the emphasis on metrics and monitoring so grantees can devote their time and energy to doing the work. When reporting requirements outpace organizational capacity, they can become a barrier to impact rather than a tool for learning and accountability.

We’re tired of being contacted only when a funder wants the story of our hardship. Many of us have been in situations where we felt exploited while serving as a community advisor. Before asking us for favors, please ask yourself: Is your request really necessary? Or is it an antiquated philanthropic practice that you’re continuing out of habit rather than purpose? Does this request advance the work underway or is it characterized as a barrier by movement leaders?

5. Use respectful language. If you’re planning to interact with community members, refrain from using dehumanizing language. This is especially true for communities most impacted by systemic challenges. Understand that community representatives pay an emotional toll every time they are asked to explain what it means to be poor or homeless.
6. Pay your community advisors for their expertise and time, just as you would any other consultant. Compensation shows that you respect our knowledge and value our input, and it can make a real difference for community leaders who work long hours or who incur expenses when they take time off work or secure childcare so they can participate.
7. Support learning, collaboration, and professional growth among your community partners. Use your convening power to connect grantees and funders so we can learn from one another and exchange insights. Being in a group with other people—whether structured as a peer exchange, network, or joint leadership opportunity—exposes us to new perspectives and encourages us to test ideas, share strategies, reflect on situations, and offer mutual support. Meeting in person is especially useful because it allows time to build the genuine connections and trust that is needed to share power.

Individual professional development on self-identified topics is equally important. It offers us a deeper dive and more reflection on our strengths and gaps as community leaders and it can help us avoid burnout.

8. Act on what you learn from us as community partners. We don’t just want to be heard; we want our input to have impact. We know our insights strengthen your outcomes, so we want to see it reflected in both your strategies and practices—and to see those contributions explicitly acknowledged rather than marginalized.

Practices That Undermine Trust Between Funders and Communities  

1. Avoid grantmaking practices that seems more performative than strategic. It’s fine to invest in a project because it is led by people of color, if that is your priority, but we still want you to care about how the work turns out, its impact, and the people behind it—not just the optics of the moment. Similarly, try to avoid funding applicants who write impressive proposals but haven’t demonstrated their work to build genuine community trust.
2. Don’t sacrifice long-term results in your quest for quick wins. A grassroots program might have to run a campaign several times over a decade before getting a win, and it needs support the whole time. Oftentimes, philanthropy’s eagerness for rapid success leaves behind important long-term projects.

For instance, we see this dynamic play out with cooperative and social housing. These models treat housing as a shared community resource instead of a speculative investment and they can create permanently affordable housing that reflects what residents want for their neighborhoods. Despite their value, these projects struggle to secure early funding and financing needed to grow and compete in a market-driven housing system.

It is also especially hard for those of us who work on federal policy to communicate the value of our work to funders looking for a quick win. We need you to stay in it for the long haul.

3. Try not to restrict your funding so much that it prevents us from meeting our communities’ needs. Give us the financial flexibility to respond quickly to arising needs and opportunities. Examples include providing unrestricted grants, earmarking a portion of funds for rapid response, and streamlining grant application and reporting processes.

Sharing Power Transforms Relationships Between Funders and Communities 

As community leaders, we draw hope for housing justice from the level of passion and preparedness we see in communities. We need philanthropy’s help, however, to nurture and advance local efforts.

1. Meaningful relationships with funders creates opportunities for many of us to better understand how philanthropy works: how funders perceive their missions, manage budgets, review proposals, select grantees, and set funding guidelines. That knowledge makes us more confident and increases our capacity to attract funding. It also helps us understand that philanthropy extends beyond financial support; it can also serve as a vector for relationship building, network weaving, communication, and learning.
2. Direct contact between funders and community leaders opens the door to deeper sharing about what’s happening in communities. Instead of having to convey the complexity of our work through a single annual report, we welcome opportunities for more expansive and ongoing conversations that helps funders better understand and respond to the realities of the ever-changing circumstances on the ground.
3. Some of us are adopting new behaviors and ways of working—and philanthropy can support and sustain these shifts. After learning more about collaborative decision-making in the context of housing justice, for example, one member of our group is helping her organization find ways to center both staff and client perspectives and facilitate smoother communication. Another advisor is more willing to lead community meetings or speak up in public. Philanthropy can create collaborative spaces and inclusive practices that can support and help sustain these shifts by being responsive, flexible, and willing to evolve alongside your community partners.

Looking Forward

As community leaders, we draw hope for housing justice from the level of passion and preparedness we see in communities. We need philanthropy’s help, however, to nurture and advance local efforts.

It is more crucial than ever for funders to share power with community leaders and invest in solutions that make housing more affordable and accessible so our communities can flourish. And the recommendations we’ve outlined are transferable approaches that can be applied to addressing other social challenges of our time. A group in which funders and community advisors share their knowledge, is a powerful way to cultivate that dialogue and align perspectives around effective solutions. It may be the best way to ensure that the grantmaking strategies are informed by the people most affected by them. It may also be the easiest way to underscore that housing justice is not just a concept. It’s about real people and real impact.