Transparency: One Small Step for Funders, One Giant Leap for Equity

In order to solve a problem, one must first identify its parameters. This applies, too, to the philanthropic sector; to that end, many of us are pushing for greater transparency in our field. For example, Candid teamed up with a hundred foundations to make public their grants data, assets, policies, and procedures through the GlassPockets initiative, while our funder affinity group colleagues at PEAK Grantmaking and the Transparency and Accountability Initiative advocate for greater transparency with their members. At the Peace and Security Funders Group, we push for transparency through our Peace and Security Funding Index.

For the past five years, the Index has chronicled thousands of grants awarded by hundreds of peace and security funders to get a better sense of who and what gets funded in this sector. This data is useful for understanding the landscape of peace and security funding, including by identifying funding gaps and new funders; however, it has its limits. In the hot-off-the-press 2019 Index, we make the case for how improving this data benefits funders. But beyond benefitting funders, improving the data greatly benefits grantees and the communities they serve, which – in a virtuous cycle – increases funder effectiveness.

On the most basic level, better data gives grantseekers insight into a foundation’s priorities. This allows grantees to more easily identify foundations with similar missions, making space for grantees to spend less time fundraising and more time focusing on their missions – be it fighting for indigenous rights, preventing nuclear war, or helping child soldiers reintegrate into their communities. This opens the door for more open, honest, and equitable relationships between foundations and the grantees they support, which is essential for impactful grantmaking.

But simply understanding who and what gets funded is only the start of the conversation. It’s time to take the conversation to the next level.

By definition, peace and security funders decide who gets a chance at peace by how they award grants. They are the guardians of crucial resources and enormous wealth, and they get to decide how much, how, and when it’s allocated. This is an incredible amount of power. With this power comes the responsibility to engage in the work in ways that center the needs of communities on the frontlines of some of the globe’s greatest challenges.

With timely, more detailed data, this sector can start to answer the tough questions that experts like Edgar Villanueva and Vu Le have been asking: Why are certain regions, issues, and strategies underfunded? Why are certain populations prioritized over others? Why isn’t awarding general operating support increasing, especially given the ample evidence that suggests that it’s a best practice? Why are certain kinds of grantees passed over for funding?

”We aren’t collecting data for data’s sake—we’re hoping to transform this sector for the better.”

For our part, we aren’t collecting data for data’s sake—we’re hoping to transform this sector for the better.

To this end, we encourage all funders to start asking the tough questions about their grantmaking, and to increase their knowledge and understanding of equity in the philanthropic sector. Funders can begin to do this in three straightforward ways. First, submit detailed data about your grantmaking to Candid. We at the Peace and Security Funders Group (PSFG) are encouraging our 59 members – who represent a vast majority of the funding in the peace and security field – to submit their detailed 2018 grants data by June 30, 2019, so that we can improve the utility of the Peace and Security Funding Index. Second, funders can join their peers – including a handful of PSFG members – in becoming members of the Justice Funders network; here, they can listen and learn from each other and experts. Finally, funders should assess their own grantmaking practices. Ask yourself, ‘How could I change grantmaking practices to become more transparent and more equitable?’

There are countless other resources to help funders engage, so if you’re stuck and not sure where to go, we at PSFG can try and point you in the right direction.

–Genevieve Boutilier

This post also appears in the Alliance blog.