BetaPhil
Beta testing systems change granting
Co-designing grantmaking practices to shift the power imbalances that keep systems stuck and people marginalized.
What if one of Canada's leading responsive grantmakers, Vancouver Foundation, applied systemic design thinking to itself? All to challenge ingrained logics, generate ideas and test alternative ways to frame, find, apply, assess, resource & influence systems change work?
Why?
Vancouver Foundation, like a growing number of grantmakers, recognizes that our knottiest social problems defy quick and linear fixes. That’s where systems change grants come in. Since 2015, Vancouver Foundation has invested over $50 million in 500+ projects.
These grants are generally effective — that’s the conclusion of a two-year evaluation. Still, humbling questions about equity and outcomes remain. Over 2020, as COVID-19 and anti-racism protests pose possibilities for system transformation, we’ll work with communities to explore how to support an equitable new normal.
Six areas to explore
Zooming into the granting process we are exploring:
Framing funds. How might community shape systems change priorities? How might we prime systems for change?
Finding applicants. Who are grantmakers responsive to? How might we mobilize and engage the unusual suspects?
Applying for funds. What ways of knowing, communicating and acting are privileged? How might we reimagine application formats and process?
Assessing applications. How are decisions made, drawing on whose voices and expertise? How might we listen to lived and in-system experience?
Resourcing capacity. How is implementation supported and sector infrastructure enabled? How might we invest in team learning and capacity?
Influencing change. Where are grantmakers using their political influence? What is the role of advocacy?
Early ideas to research
Participatory budgeting, Visual mapping, Team matchmaking, Non-written applications, Access to journalists, and on!
How?
We’re using a participatory design process to understand systems change grantmaking now and reimagine its future -- drawing on the perspectives of marginalized communities, local leaders, applicants, grantees, staff, advisors, and donors.
The project unfolds in three main phases from April until December. We are at the beginning of the second phase: making and testing.
Read about the learnings from the first phase in our blog!