From Funder to Resource Activist - Confessions of a Fellow Grantmaker

The #FixTheFlow Fellowship is now open to FUNDERS. Apply or nominate a Fellow by 17th November. You can also email us at fixtheflow@ig-advisors.com to secure a package deal for you and your grantees.

I vividly remember my first day as a Grants Officer. 

I was excited but seriously nervous about this strange new responsibility I had been handed: stewarding money organisations would turn into social impact. It sounded incredible but like most, I was completely thrown into the deep end, and (unlike some) was lucky enough to be surrounded by supportive managers and colleagues who had been in the game a little longer. 

Roll on 6 years, and I’d played this ‘grant management’ function for various philanthropic institutions, namely, a private family foundation and a community foundation - not forgetting how the latter encompassed funder collaboratives, corporate foundations, and government agencies, too. By this point, I felt like I’d picked up the lingo and skills to do the job well and felt I just needed to keep at it to start feeling more confident and hopeful that my work would create lasting change! 

It wasn’t until 2020 - when I led a partnership with the Muslim Charities Forum to counteract the significant underfunding faced by Muslim-led organisations responding to the Covid-19 pandemic - that I became acutely aware of the broken philanthropic system I was part of. It was a wake-up call to learn that in the world of grants and philanthropic funding, resources don't always flow to where they’re needed most (and even when they do, they’re often not given in the most helpful way possible). 

Fast forward a few years more, and I’m now an Advisor at I.G. Advisors. Over the past year in this role, I've seen that self-blame and feelings of hopelessness are more common than not. It’s a common misconception that grantmakers (i.e. Grants Officers, Programme Managers etc.) are the people with all the decision-making power and influence, but it’s a lot more complicated than that. We’re merely cogs in a funding machine - facing critique and pressure from each and every angle, there to fulfil existing processes, and ill equipped to affect meaningful change. 

As Edgar Villanueva summed up perfectly in his book ‘Decolonizing Wealth’:

Quote From I.G.’s What Donors Want podcast with Edgar Villanueva

The only formal training I ever received was in risk management, safeguarding, assessing financial accounts, and using various grant management software - pretty indicative of the role we’re supposed to play. No wonder the 75% of grantmakers who took our survey find the funding system not to be set up in the way they need to do their job well. 

Some of the challenges I and my grantmaking colleagues faced included:

• Not receiving any formal training, and when we do it’s on the basic elements I listed above (risk management safeguarding, financial accounts), rather than anything strategic or progressive.

• Often feeling like we’re making mistakes, faced with an enormous number of grant applications from nonprofits - all in urgent and desperate need of support.

• Trying our best to go above and beyond (when we do find some capacity) but mostly not having nearly enough time to do the listening work justice. Ultimately, we end up with no time to pause, reflect and listen to what the community we’re serving really needs. 

• Being so focused on due diligence and ‘risk management’ we restrict our funding from those doing the most effective work.  

• Being confused about who we are most accountable to, which can make us even more risk averse (of course we’re accountable to our grantees and communities, but that’s often in addition to our line managers, team leads, and board, and it can be difficult to balance the competing agendas).

• Working in silos, separated from initiatives, movements and change-makers leading the progress we want to see. 

• Using reporting frameworks that aren’t fit for purpose - they take up valuable time and prevent us from properly understanding long-term learning journeys.

• Being so driven by numbers for measuring ‘impact’ that we lose out on the human stories behind them.

• Not being equipped with the tools, skills and community needed to influence change internally, especially in an economic climate where job security is so important.  

Now that I’m in a role where I can focus my energy on a systems level, I wanted to do something about this. At I.G., we’ve been running our #FixTheFlow Fellowship for a year now with Fundraisers, and I’m thrilled to share that we now have a new, dedicated FUNDERS edition that is accepting applications until 17th November (for a 2024 start)! 

We’ll be co-creating a learning curriculum that’s not only tailored to our cohort’s needs but one that provides the infrastructure needed to lead a movement for transformation across the funding system, with a Resource Activist mindset.

1. This funders stream will be separate from the fundraising stream, however we’ll be bringing the streams together for a systems change project(there will be ground rules in place to manage power dynamics). 

2. We're bringing together funders from all levels, regardless of their location or cause area (in fact, this diversity is unique and powerful). It has customised learning routes for both emerging and senior professionals and will be truly international, with a diverse community of people and purposes.

3. We're providing them with personalised support and coaching, the tools for continuous learning and education, peer support and inspiration. We're fostering systems-change collaboration and giving them access to expert advice and training - and not on risk management, accountancy and grant management systems, FYI! This will be tailored to your individual needs, pain points and goals when driving impact within your workplace, no matter your job title.

This is not just an initiative; it's a movement. It's a recognition of the challenges we face as grantmakers and a commitment to addressing them. It's a call to action for all of us who are passionate about making a positive impact in the world through grantmaking.

1. Apply to become a #FixTheFlow Funder Fellow by 17th November 2023 (click ‘Request to Join’ at the top of the page)

2. Nominate a peer Funder or Fundraiser to join the Fellowship, too

3. Request a package deal to send your grantees on the Fellowship, too (email fixtheflow@ig-advisors.com for more info)

See you in there soon!