Our approach
Establishing clear grantmaking principles is essential to ensuring that our funding strategies align with our values and create meaningful, lasting impact. By defining these principles, we commit to a more transparent, equitable, and effective approach that prioritizes the needs of grantees and the communities they serve. These guiding principles—grantee-centered, equity-focused, and relationship-oriented grantmaking—are rooted in our organization’s Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion – Health Equity (JEDI-HE) Audit. They serve as a framework for fostering trust, redistributing power, and addressing systemic barriers within philanthropy. By embedding these principles in our grantmaking, we strengthen our ability to support transformative change and create more inclusive opportunities for all.
Grantee-centered grantmaking, as a principle, emphasizes prioritizing the needs, perspectives, and experiences of grantees (the organizations or individuals receiving funding) in the grantmaking process. This approach reflects a commitment to equity, collaboration, and mutual respect, aiming to empower grantees and foster stronger, more impactful partnerships.
Key aspects of this principle include:
1. Listening and Learning: Actively engaging with grantees to understand their unique challenges, opportunities, and insights.
2. Flexibility and Responsiveness: Designing grant processes that adapt to the grantees’ contexts, including simplifying applications, reporting requirements, and offering unrestricted funding.
3. Trust and Collaboration: Building relationships based on trust, transparency, and shared goals, treating grantees as field experts.
4. Equity and Inclusion: Addressing systemic barriers and prioritizing historically underfunded or marginalized communities.
5. Capacity Building: Supporting grantees with funding and resources, training, and other opportunities for long-term sustainability.
This principle centers grantees’ voices in decision-making, acknowledging that they are closest to the issues they address and best positioned to drive meaningful change.
Equity-focused grantmaking as a principle prioritizes the intentional allocation of resources to address systemic inequities and empower historically marginalized or underserved communities. This approach reflects a deep commitment to fairness, justice, and creating opportunities for all, particularly those excluded or disadvantaged by social, economic, or structural barriers.
Key elements of equity-focused grantmaking include:
1. Redistributing Power: Shifting decision-making authority and control over resources to those most affected by inequities.
2. Centering Marginalized Voices: Actively engaging and amplifying the perspectives of underrepresented communities to ensure their needs and priorities shape funding strategies.
3. Addressing Root Causes: Supporting initiatives that tackle systemic and structural issues rather than just addressing symptoms of inequality.
4. Data-Informed Decision-Making: Using disaggregated data to identify disparities and target investments where they can have the most transformative impact.
5. Long-Term Commitment: Providing sustained support to communities and organizations working toward equity, acknowledging that systemic change takes time.
6. Inclusive Practices: Ensuring grantmaking processes, from application to reporting, are accessible, transparent, and designed to minimize barriers for grantees.
By embedding equity as a core principle, HFNLC aims to create a more just society in which resources and opportunities are distributed in ways that allow everyone, especially the historically excluded, to thrive.
Relationship-oriented grantmaking, as a principle, emphasizes building and sustaining meaningful, trust-based partnerships between funders and grantees. This approach reflects a commitment to collaboration, mutual respect, and shared goals, recognizing that strong relationships lead to greater impact and a more equitable, effective grantmaking process.
Key aspects of this principle include:
1. Trust and Transparency: Establishing open, honest communication and fostering trust through consistent, clear, and respectful interactions.
2. Reciprocity: Recognizing the expertise and value that grantees bring to the partnership and approaching the relationship as a mutual exchange of knowledge and resources.
3. Empathy and Understanding: Taking the time to understand grantees’ unique challenges, contexts, and aspirations and tailoring support to meet their needs.
4. Accessible and Supportive Processes: Simplifying grant applications, reporting requirements, and providing guidance or feedback to ease the administrative burden on grantees.
5. Regular Engagement: Maintaining ongoing dialogue and connection during funding cycles and throughout the relationship to build trust and adapt to evolving needs.
6. Celebrating Successes Together: Acknowledging and amplifying grantees’ achievements as a shared accomplishment.
By centering relationships, HFNLC fosters a culture of partnership and collaboration, where both parties work together to achieve shared goals, creating a more supportive and impactful grantmaking ecosystem.