By Karen Jones

Time flies when you are having fun, and the GET had lots of fun this year building and deepening our relationships with each other and with our grantees. The GET’s work begins where grant-making leaves off:  for three years after grants are awarded, members of the GET partner with WaWF grantees to find ways we can support their work “beyond the check.” Following principles of Trust-Based Philanthropy, we engage with our grantees as trusted partners, inviting them to share their challenges and opportunities and offering our help to meet the needs they identify. As we’ve adopted and improved this approach, we have learned far more about the grantees and developed much stronger and lasting relationships than we did in the past when we functioned as an assessment team. Like any group in transition, we have had our share of growing pains, but in GET’s third year, there were far more gains than pains as we learned more and got better at partnering with grantees in ways that centered them and helped them advance their missions and goals.    

Working Together and Leaning into Trust-Based Philanthropy

As the GET has come to fully embrace Trust-Based Philanthropy, we have learned a great deal about how to be better supporters and partners. Over the course of this year, small teams of 2 or 3 members met with 11 organizations that had received grants over the past three years. We tried to team veteran GET members with those new to GET and to match members with grantees they’d worked with in the past. We initially reached out to grantees to explain our process and approach (including the fact that they don’t need to provide written reports!) and then set up times to meet with them. GET teams offered to meet their grantees in person when possible but let the grantee decide what frequency and type of meeting worked best for them. We did our research ahead of time to reduce the burden on grantees so we could come to meetings fully prepared to listen and learn. With a less demanding structure and flexible reports, we found more collaboration and relationship-building opportunities. Meetings with grantees were honest and often included heart-felt discussions about the people and communities they served, their challenges and opportunities, and how we might help. GET team members then brought those stories and requests back to the full group at our monthly meetings, where we focused our collective time-sharing ideas and resources for helping to meet the grantees’ requests for support.  

When Trust-Based Philanthropy works, it leads to mutually beneficial, lasting relationships that help grantees achieve their missions and vision. It is fun and impactful work. To succeed, it requires a shift in mindset and team commitment to:

• Centering the grantees’ needs, not our own, and honoring their values and perspectives.
• Coming into conversation with a mindset of curiosity, not judgment.
• Focusing more on listening and learning than on teaching.
• Recognizing and seeking to break down systemic biases and power dynamics; and
• Understanding that grantees know better than we do what they need to succeed, so it’s not our job to “fix” their problems, but to work alongside them, sharing and exchanging ideas to help meet the needs they identify. 

Our GET journey of learning and leaning in continues, but we are “all in” on this approach!

Grantee Support:  No One Size Fits All

In GET’s three years, we have also learned a great deal about the kinds of support our grantees want and how we can and can’t help. One of our lessons has been that not all grantees will respond to our offer of support, and that’s okay. In other cases, as grantees have become more comfortable asking us for help, we have faced questions about our capacity to respond to some of their requests and how to prioritize requests among grantees. We’ve been able to do more and more, but we’ve sometimes stretched the team’s capacity and struggled to find the best way to tap into the broader WaWF base. These are issues we will continue to work on in the coming years.

Improved Tools & Resources

• Our tracker, a tool for tracking requests and actions taken, and for capturing information such as low-cost event spaces, consultants, and online resources.
• The member database, which identifies WaWF members who have offered expertise in different areas.
• The grantee digest, a newsletter dedicated to current and past grantees for sharing information with WaWF membership, such as fundraising event, staff or board openings. 

Third Year Highlights

• Fundraising resources.  This is an area where we receive many requests for assistance every year. This year, GET members with backgrounds in fundraising were able to help fill in some of the gaps, offer feedback on the development of plans, and make helpful connections with other organizations and resources. We formed a working group of members with development, marketing and event planning backgrounds that will continue to explore how we can best support grantees in the future.
• Training/learning/board development. As in the past, grantees this year wanted information about where to get training or learn about specific topics related to their work. This year, we were able to provide contacts with low-cost consultants through our database and GET member contacts and resources and help working onboard training and development.
• Connections/introductions/networking. Grantees requested support in building their contacts and connecting with other organizations facing similar challenges. GET members tapped their personal networks to make connections and WaWF staff also assisted with these requests.
• Information sharing with WaWF members. Grantees frequently asked that we share information with the broader WaWF community including updates about their work, staff, and board openings, and invitations to informational or fundraising events. We used our own contacts to fill tables and spread news, and we debuted the Grantee Digest as a way of sharing grantee news with other WaWF members. 
• Other direct action. Grantees also requested support in the form of direct action. The GET was able to respond by helping to find event space, hosting house parties to allow members to meet with and learn about grantees and visiting grantee locations as possible sites for future WaWF gatherings, among others.
• Advocacy: This year we received several requests from grantees seeking to advocate for specific causes and policies. The GET is joining discussions with the WaWF board and Advocacy Committee to consider how we can and should respond to these requests in the future.

GET Ahead

At our year-end team celebration, former GET co-lead Ellen Look shared some reflections about GET’s three-year journey, reminding us that change is never easy or occurs in predictable patterns. Ellen then shared a quote from Nelson Mandela and her own comment, which captures where we are now. Mandela said: “I never lose. I either win or I learn.”  and Ellen added, “I think the GET has learned, and both we and our grantees have won.”