Transformative shifts: how funders can ensure they are playing the supporting role

Like many funders and organizations who support movements and frontline organizations, American Jewish World Service (AJWS) has been examining our approach to supporting grantee partners to be responsive and accountable to their movements and communities. In the paper Transformative Shifts: From Capacity to Movement Power, we share a values-based framework and measurement approach that focuses on what funders really need to learn: Are we fulfilling our role to support our partners? The paper includes recommended shifts funders and evaluators can make from hierarchical, power-laden practices. Conventionally, the effectiveness of “capacity building” has been measured by grantee performance, placing the onus on participants rather than holding the “builders” accountable for the quality and effectiveness of their support. AJWS’s partners have an aligned vision for change and we trust their capabilities to determine how best to work toward that change. Our role is to provide resources and accompany them, while also recognizing that we benefit by learning from our partners. So, in our model, effective accompaniment is measured by how and how well we responded to grantee needs, in a way that enables problem-solving and growth, and shifts attention to fitness for purpose as a starting point. Shifting and sharing power in funder-grantee relationships requires addressing structures and practices in which those dynamics are embedded. Pivoting the measurement lens from the grantee as the unit of analysis (the problem to be solved) and toward the funder as the provider of support, enables funders to align evaluation with our values.