Conscious Funders

Balancing Great Relationships and Great Expectations

By September 12, 2019

What makes for great relationships between funders and their nonprofit partners? We have always believed that it starts with respect, authenticity, and honesty across power differentials in ways that build trust over time. In fact, we have often written about ways to bridge power divides by being proactive, relational funders who don’t create conditions where…

Read more

Funder Spotlight: Headwaters Foundation

By June 28, 2018

Headwaters Foundation in Missoula, Montana is a new health conversion foundation that has been committed to embracing trust-based philanthropy since its inception. This commitment has led to a number of innovations – including GO! Grants that are designed to put grant funds in the hands of grantees in less than a month – as well…

Read more

Funder Spotlight: Hill-Snowdon Foundation

By May 29, 2018

The Hill-Snowdon Foundation is a DC-based foundation committed to supporting grassroots movements for social justice by funding community organizing and leveraging dollars in support of targeted initiatives. They’ve played a leading role as part of our Defending the Dream rapid response collaboration, and have made some recent shifts to their process to further support their…

Read more

Finding Power in Practice

By May 14, 2018

Note: This post originally appeared on Medium, as part of Justice Funders‘ “Liberate Philanthropy” Blog Series. You can read the original post here.  The foundation world is plagued with a number of inherent challenges that inhibit our ability to do our best work: our own hubris, our lack of proximity to the people we support,…

Read more

Funder Spotlight: Latino Community Foundation

By May 8, 2018

Latino Community Foundation (LCF) is breaking the old paradigms of community foundations by investing in building power—and partnership—among Latino donors and community leaders throughout California. When Jacqueline Garcel (pictured left) took the helm as CEO two and half years ago, the foundation began to shift its practices to elevate the power and potential of California’s…

Read more