Throwback Thursday: GlassPockets editor’s top five for funders

Candid’s mission to get you the information you need to do good hinges on both the information and getting it to you. The information can be highly relevant and compelling. But, if you have trouble getting to it, it can severely limit the impact of the content. To better deliver on our mission, and help you more easily find articles on foundation transparency, we have consolidated our funders’ content from Transparency Talk, the former GlassPockets blog, into Candid’s Blog.  

Now, when users search the Candid Blog for key words such as “funder transparency” or “GlassPockets,” it will bring up select articles from the Transparency Talk archives. And, select Transparency Talk articles that share individual funder learning journeys remain available on the Candid Learning for Funders Learning Journal. 

In classic Throwback Thursday style, we are highlighting five popular and relevant oldies but goodies from the GlassPockets archive. Check out the helpful advice for funders on ways to leverage transparency to improve equitable access to philanthropic resources. 

Top 5 GlassPockets blogs for funders

Confessions of a DEI Data Junkie

Candid receives and moves vast quantities of digital information in the social sector. We interact with more than 200 platform partners like Amazon.com, Facebook, and PayPal. We have seen our share of mistakes made in collecting and sharing data. In this post, Candid shares the mistakes it, too, has made along the way, the things that keep our team up at night, the fixes, and our hard-won lessons learned.  

COVID-19 Response: Which Changes in Grantmaking Practice Should Be Here to Stay?

Grantmakers, not so fast! The key theme of this post is not to go back to “business as usual” post-pandemic lockdown. PEAK Grantmaking and Candid teamed up to host a forum for peer learning and knowledge exchange on COVID-19 response practices. This article synthesizes this collective wisdom from grants management professionals’ reflections. This includes what they learned from changes made to improve transparency and streamline grants processes that can inform how to improve overall practices in ways that improve equitable and efficient practices well into the future. 

Hole in the Road to Transparency: People with Disabilities Often Excluded by Foundations & Nonprofits

Funders are increasingly adding language about diversity, equity, and inclusion to their websites. But, they may unwittingly be putting up barriers to people with disabilities to even learn about or apply to such initiatives. Jennifer Mizrahi, at the time CEO of RespectAbility, shares insights here about how foundations and the broader social sector, can align its practices with its values by removing barriers that prevent people with disabilities from participation. 

Invitation Only: Closing the Door to Equity?

If your foundation only accepts grant applications by invitation only, does this undermine values related to equity and inclusion? Can a foundation live up to its role of serving the public good with an invite-only process? And can small foundations effectively and efficiently review an open call for proposals? Claire Peeps, executive director of the Durfee Foundation, shares how and why Durfee’s lean staff manage open calls, and what they learned from a survey sent to 100 nonprofit leaders about approaches they recommend foundations use for applicant screening and invitation. 

When Numbers Fall Short: The Challenge of Measuring Diversity in a Global Context

Many demographic frameworks are set up for US-based organizations. This makes it challenging to measure diversity, equity, and inclusion in a global context. Bama Athreya, gender and social inclusion advisor for the Laudes Foundation (formerly C&A), shares lessons learned and recommendations from using a “social inclusion context” framework to tackle this challenge. This framework looks at the local context in the regions in which the organization works. It identifies who has power and who is marginalized. Then, crafts context-specific questions designed to assess if and how those dynamics are playing out in your own organization. This includes thinking about who is missing from the table, and how to change the pattern. 

Our commitment to foundation transparency remains as strong as ever. We will continue to use Candid’s blog to highlight best practices in funder transparency. Make sure to sign up for Candid’s bi-weekly email newsletter to get the latest delivered straight to your inbox.