Open, trusting, and evolving: what we’re learning from our communities about better grant making 

HIWCF recently signed up to the IVAR (Institute for Voluntary Action Research) ’Open and Trusting’ initiative, a programme which asks funders to commit to eight pledges around our approach to grant making: these include transparency, flexibility, proportionality and more.

For us, this has been part of wider efforts toward more intentional engagement with the community groups we are here to serve. And I use the term ’to serve’ deliberately – HIWCF’s key purpose is to fund the charitable groups which work at the coal face every day to help improve the lives of the people in our communities who are struggling the most. So, it makes sense that we should listen to what those groups need from us, and as far as possible to respond effectively to that feedback. The Community Foundation model can create limits – often connected to the source of our funding – but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t strive to be the best where we can, to improve in all the areas we have control over.

Signing up to the IVAR pledges is one thing; understanding how we’re doing is another. That’s why we recently launched a survey about the quality of our service to the groups we’ve funded, to gain a sense of what has changed since we last asked in 2022. We’ll report back on those findings once we have them. So far, we have received some great feedback – and some that shows we still have areas we can improve on. Later this year, we will run another survey to ‘benchmark’ our IVAR pledges, so that we can measure our progress against them.

This conversation isn’t happening in isolation – there has been a lot of discourse in the sector over the past few years about funders and the complexities of our relationships with the community groups we serve, and how well – or not – we are serving them. I’m looking forward to continuing that discussion with colleagues at the Chartered Institute of Fundraising National Convention in a few weeks’ time where I’ll be contributing to the ‘Hearing Funder Voices’ session. While the title suggests one perspective, I hope it enables a more balanced exchange – where fundraisers feel heard too, and where we can all reflect honestly on what we’re learning.

As an anchor organisation for the community sector in our region, we have the unique privilege of being able to help amplify the voices of those people who are working on the frontline of some of our region’s most important community services. The people working every day to help their communities – often the same ones coming to us seeking funding to keep that vital work on track. That’s also why we see our podcast as being more than just a good marketing tool or something to listen to in the car – it’s a way for anyone to hear about what’s really going on in the charitable sector, to challenge their own thinking and to realise there is more to trust than to challenge! For us, it’s a key way for us to continue our efforts to listen, learn and evolve in response. Take a listen here.

Taken together, these strands – our commitment to the IVAR pledges, our engagement with sector dialogue, and our efforts to platform community voices – are all part of the same journey. One where we continue to listen, learn and evolve, so that we can play our part as a more open and trusting funder.