In part four of this series, Walter Howell continues the conversation about common concerns funders may have as they prepare efforts to share decision making with the people and communities they intend to serve.

This episode offers useful advice about how to build or repair trust with the people and communities your foundation seeks to serve: “Think about how you build trust with your closest friends,” he says, and see that it’s the same “human-to-human” interactions — listening to each other, offering support, experiencing joy together — that can make a difference.

In part three of this series, Walter Howell continues the conversation about common concerns funders may have as they prepare efforts to share decision making with the people and communities they intend to serve.

This episode offers advice on how to marry the expertise of people and communities experiencing an issue and developing their own solutions with the academic and professional expertise of hired foundation staff. “Think about the rooms you are not a part of,” he says, such as where block captains, teachers, and churchgoers are, and “go there and say, ‘This is who I want to center and learn from.’”

In part two of this series, Walter Howell continues the conversation about common concerns funders may have as they prepare efforts to share decision making with the people and communities they intend to serve.

This episode offers useful advice about facing the challenge of balancing limited resources with the need to honor and compensate community members’ work. It starts, he says, with “having that an abundance mindset … towards the people you are bringing to the table.”

Walter Howell at Community Wealth Partners guest hosts this series of shorts about common concerns funders may have as they prepare efforts to share decision making with the people and communities they intend to serve.

This episode offers useful advice about overcoming the feeling of loss of control when sharing power: “Get really clear on the guide rails,” he says. “Clearness is kindness.”

Fund for Shared Insight's Insights for Change Podcast features conversations with people in philanthropy about funder listening to shift power. 

In this pilot episode, John Ferguson (Indiana Philanthropy Alliance) and Annie Grier (Feedback Labs) have a lively and insightful conversation about how funders need to use their “listening stethoscopes” to find out what is already happening in the communities they seek to serve; the “infinite number of potential partnerships” that ought to be cultivated to accelerate the work of philanthropy; and what a 1990s cartoon character can teach us about power dynamics.

About Fund for Shared Insight

Fund for Shared Insight is a national funder collaborative seeking to improve philanthropy by supporting funders to listen well, respond to what they hear, and shift and share power with those impacted by their desicions. Insights for Change is a blog featuring news, case studies, opinions, research, videos, and podcasts, that highlight how funders and nonprofits can center the people and communities at the heart of their work.