This is the first post in the series for exploring how foundations view and intentionally use their power.
Douglas Easterling, Ph.D.
Sabina Gesell, Ph.D.
Wake Forest School of Medicine
With the COVID-19 pandemic, the abrupt breakdown of the global economy and a string of racist killings that brought longstanding inequities into plain view, 2020 will be remembered as the year that we were all called to do more than we previously imagined ourselves doing.
This is certainly true for health foundations. It is no longer sufficient to be a “good grantmaker.” More and more foundations are grappling with philanthropy’s defining question: “What will we do to make the world a better place, especially for people who have historically been denied the opportunity to lead full, healthy lives?”
Over the past two decades an increasing number of health foundations have embraced the role of change agent. And rather than relying on grantees to make change happen, they are intervening themselves to change policy, systems, and institutions (Easterling and McDuffee 2018).
The Currency of Power
Social-justice groups such as the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy have encouraged this shift toward activism, arguing that foundations need to be more intentional in using their “power” to catalyze social change. That power derives from being able to disburse millions of dollars toward organizations of their own choosing, as well as the reputational capital that inherently comes with being a funder.
Foundations have a distinctive form of power. They are in a position to entice people and organizations to think things they wouldn’t otherwise think and to do things they wouldn’t otherwise do.
This power is exercised whenever a foundation communicates that it will be focusing its grantmaking on a particular issue, or invites organizations to apply for its latest initiative, or requires an applicant to show that its board of directors is diverse in terms of race and ethnicity.
It is no surprise that foundations have the power to influence grant seekers. But in our experience, there is not enough conversation (especially open conversation) about when and how to exercise this power. Indeed, foundations are sometimes not even conscious of this power.
The Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts has been quite deliberate in using its power as a funder to push people and organizations to work in new ways. We observed this in our evaluation of the Synergy Initiative, which supports collaborative groups in planning, implementing, evaluating, and sustaining programs that address major community issues (Easterling and McDuffee 2019). The foundation’s Chief Executive Officer and other staff actively participate in the collaborative process, taking advantage of their status as the funder. They are unapologetic in pushing participants to solve the problem they identified. One participant summarized the foundation’s effect as follows:
[We were challenged] to think much bigger and broader than we had ever been asked to think before. It was exciting. I think we were probably fearful along the way, too. We have an opportunity here and we want to make sure we don’t squander it (Easterling and McDuffee 2019).
Using Power Ethically
Influencing grantees and grantseekers is a power that can be both underused and overused. It can also be misused.
One example of misuse is when a foundation convenes a coalition around an issue that the board and staff have identified as a priority, and then recruits particular organizations to participate. Even if the invitation is voluntary, most community organizations will find it difficult not to accept the invitation to join the coalition, especially if they are grant seekers. This sort of initiative can be problematic if the foundation is unilateral in defining the problem to be solved and brings specific ideas as to how the problem should be solved. These collaborative initiatives typically require significant investments of time and attention from the participating organizations, often from the Chief Executive Officer. This can detract from the organizations’ ability to carry out their own programming. In some cases, the solution the foundation has in mind requires the organizations to adopt new programming that veers them off their mission.
Even if a foundation is committed to social justice, being ethical requires that it balance its own interests with the interests of the people and organizations it is attempting to influence. For a foundation to be a responsible steward of its power, it needs to first have an accurate understanding of the interests of the people and organizations that might be influenced by its actions.
Exercising Power in the Context of Trusting Relationships
Trusting relationships are crucial to the stewardship of power. It is only by being in a trusting relationship that a foundation will understand an organization well enough to determine what sorts of new and different things should be enticed. Moreover, the more that a grantee or applicant trusts a funder, the more open they will be to stretching themselves in ways that the funder sees as beneficial.
This emphasis on trusting relationships is central to the Colorado Health Foundation’s Locally-Focused Work. Within each participating community, a Program Officer spends between six and eight days per month engaging with a variety of people and organizations to understand local issues, identify opportunities, encourage broader thinking, and support new and expanded approaches to advancing health equity. The foundation intentionally entices new thinking and new action. This includes offering coaching and training to community members who are poised to step into stronger leadership roles. However, before encouraging leadership development, the program officer enters into a relationship that allows honest conversations about the community member’s aspirations in life.
On the flip side, a trusting relationship is the vehicle through which the foundation can itself be influenced. It’s not enough for foundations to exercise their power. They also have a responsibility to help build the power of their partners. One indication that those partners actually have power is when they are able to influence the foundation to think and act differently. This can only happen when foundation staff and board members have opened themselves up to the point that they are able to listen to partners and to move in new directions based on what they are hearing.
References
Easterling, Douglas, and McDuffee, L. “Becoming Strategic: Finding Leverage Over the Social and Economic Determinants of Health.” The Foundation Review, 10, no. 1 2018: 90–112.
Easterling, Douglas, and McDuffee, L. “How Can Foundations Promote Impactful Collaboration?” The Foundation Review, 11, no. 3 2019: 23–40.