Trust-based Philanthropy

The overarching goal of trust-based philanthropy is to change the usual power dynamic between a funder and the social justice change agent to one of true partnership.

Trust-based philanthropy is the antithesis of evidence-based philanthropy, a prominent practice in mainstream philanthropy. Rather, trust-based philanthropy is oriented to “trust” organizations and leaders to do the work more than requiring evidence of a project’s impact in unrealistic timeframes and rigid reporting formats. Trust-based philanthropy also intersects with another feminist funding principle and power-shifting practice, and that is participatory grantmaking.

Participatory grantmaking is demonstrated when women’s funds incorporate grantee partners into decision-making to select new grantee partners. Women’s funds have incorporated this practice, recognizing that those who receive grants from women’s funds are on the frontlines in their communities and are the subject matter experts on the issues they confront. For this reason, women’s funds often ask their grantee partners to serve on their advisory or grantmaking boards.

Trust-based philanthropy emphasizes relationship building and the belief that the grantee partner is the change agent best suited to lead the way. In practice, trust-based philanthropy provides multiyear, unrestricted funding, empowering women leaders to implement their strategies and solutions. This allows activist leaders to make critical strategic changes in real-time, removing onerous paperwork that detracts from the most critical work and offering support beyond the check.

Dr. Musimbi Kanyoro tells a story she heard from an older woman from Brazil.

“This woman wrote a handwritten letter in Portuguese to Anne Firth Murray (one of the founders of the Global Fund for Women) and asked for a very limited amount of funding because she had an idea that she wanted to build, and she got that money. Anne Firth Murray introduced the idea that women should not have any barriers to asking for money. They could apply to the Global Fund in any language, all the time, and in any format they could write— handwritten, et cetera.

“The letter got there, they got help from volunteers, who translated, and the amount of money she asked for was given to them. This woman’s organization is now found in every part of Brazil. When we visited with donors, we found that the movement had grown so much that it had branches in every part of Brazil. It draws from that small idea being funded. I looked at several of the groups that had received grants. I think the biggest difference was the funding of ideas so that those ideas developed into something bigger, and the women who had those ideas, once they had organized and mobilized larger groups, could invent and find different ways of fundraising.”