During the years I led a nonprofit, when a funder suggested “collaboration”, my gut reaction was to roll my eyes. This is not super helpful, I realize. As I scrambled to keep up with the demands on the organization, collaboration was an effort I often lacked the resources and energy to support. And when a funder required collaboration, it was a reminder of the strings attached to the funding – strings that sometimes created mission drift I could not afford.
When I imagine collaborating with and among the Kinship Fund’s nonprofit partners, an important step is to examine my own expectations. I often talk about our practice of interrogating our philanthropic practices. For us, that means before (and frankly sometimes in the middle) we start a process or implement a procedure, we ask “Why are we doing this? Who does it benefit, and who does it marginalize?” We don’t always get it right, and centering community perspective runs into the deeply entrenched practices of philanthropy.
There are foundational principles to effective collaboration, but we can’t even agree on how to define it with the 5 C’s, the 7 Drivers, the 10 Core Principles, etc. When you throw a foundation/funder into the mix, you load in a power dynamic that can easily disrupt an already complex process.
At the Kinship Fund, the pillars of our grantmaking call for collaboration. I believe that in a time of shrinking resources, rising need, and cultural fatigue, we have to figure it out. We are using a framework that includes a common purpose, active and authentic communication, a culture of trust, mutual accountability, effective feedback, and the creation of value for each partner. Some days you watch the lightbulbs turn on, and some days we are just stumbling through to get to the other side.
I believe there are specific ways funders can approach collaborative efforts with nonprofit partners to lead to the transformation we all want. We are still very early in our process, but the success of both the Place-Based Project to Support Refugees & Immigrants and the Youth Mentorship Collaborative will be determined by how well we do this. Frankly, we are in test mode on every single principle.
Common Purpose needs to be designed by nonprofit leaders, not defined by the foundation. That means holding the tension between our responsibility to our mission and getting out of the way so everyone has a role in shaping it.
Active and authentic communication takes something none of us have enough of: time. For funders, it requires naming the power dynamic every time you are at the table and walking the talk. And time. Lots of time.
A culture of trust isn’t something you wish into existence. Each organization’s success is a part of how the group succeeds, and trust is built when each person looks out for the others and takes specific actions that foster confidence.
Mutual accountability occurs when there are clear goals and spoken expectations, and everyone follows through. It also means there should be an exit plan if it isn’t working, and a commitment to looking for win-win strategies.
Effective feedback only happens when all the other fundamentals are in place, and the conditions are in place to ask for and receive feedback.
Value for each partner will ebb and flow, but if a partner does not see the value created inside of the collaboration for their organization, we cannot expect them to be an active participant.
Two things we are chewing on right now are:How do we bring our partners together into authentic collaboration when resources are scarce, it’s too early to know whether it will benefit them, and the funder/fundee power dynamic is always at the table?
How should a funder resource collaboration? How do we compensate our partners for their intellectual property, demonstrate the true value of their time and expertise, and then resource/fund collaboration so it becomes more than just a bunch of good ideas?
Trust-based philanthropy practices, collaboration, and co-creation risk becoming buzzwords that virtue-signal in place of actual progress. Funders have an obligation to foster and fund collaboration while not sitting at the head of the table.
In hope,
Kim Berry Jones
President
The Kinship Fund