What is participatory grantmaking, and how can it help to shift power? It’s important to establish first that funders, donors, institutional funders etc are all the power holders in our space, and that true systemic change comes from power holders making space for others, and giving up some of their power. PGM is a great way to do that.

PGM is an innovative approach to philanthropy that involves decisions being made by the people who are directly affected by the issues being funded. In traditional grantmaking, strategies, portfolios, decisions about who, what, and where funding is given are made by people often very far removed from the work being done, who often declare themselves experts.

PGM places power where it belongs – in the hands of a larger group of people, among them the community. This means that those who have lived experience with the challenges being addressed have a significant say in how funds are allocated.

In practice, PGM can take many forms, from involving community representatives on grant panels to creating fully community-led grantmaking processes. The core principle, however, remains the same: shifting decision-making power to those who are most impacted by the funding.

Why is PGM Important?

It challenges the traditional power dynamics that often exist in philanthropy. In conventional grantmaking, decisions about a grant’s length, conditions, reporting cycles, etc are made centrally, and PGM allows for some flexibility here. PGM can therefore better connect funders and their grantees, and enable greater learning on the part of the funder about their contexts. Some funders are very well connected with their countries, and have a good knowledge of the political factors surrounding their partners. This makes them more likely to be understanding, or empathetic when it comes to structuring a grant for their communities.

This isn’t always the case though, and PGM is a great tool to help different groups of people learn together. If PGM is done with intermediaries, community members, and other funders, you can also create a community of learning between your ecosystem, rather than the relationship being just bilateral between funder and grantee.

This leads to more relevant and effective funding decisions, as community members, grantees, or others working in the spaces where funding takes place are often best positioned to identify the most pressing needs and the most innovative solutions.

PGM can also help ensure sustainability and effectiveness. By involving the community in the grantmaking process, there can be a greater sense of ownership and accountability. It’s more likely that the problems identified will be the deeper root issues, making it more likely that the projects designed to address them can look beyond the project timeline to target sustainable, medium- to long-term change.

How PGM Shifts Power

Redistributing decision-making power from funders to the community. By centring people with lived experience and their expertise, PGM values different perspectives and adds layers of complexity and analysis to a grant decision. By having multiple groups input into the decisions, funds can be allocated to address immediate priorities, deeper issues, interconnected challenges, and brings new ideas to the decision-making table than the traditional system. This redistribution of power can also help practice how to address sytemic injustices by looking inwards.

Building trust and accountability between grantees, funders, and their communities. This also contributes to sustainability by building networks of support, and stronger relationships which can lead to learning flowing in different directions, trust, respect, and a shared accountability for the project’s outcomes. PGM also promotes transparency since the decision-making process is more open and inclusive. This makes a wider group of people accountable for its success. This can help to build trust ebtween communities and their funders, stepping outside the transactional financial relationship they normally share. After all, people are more likely to trust and support projects that they have had a hand in selecting.

Encouraging innovation by thinking creatively about different strategies to solve a problem. PGM is more likely to bring creative ideas and strategies to the table, since the ideas will come from new people, and this can challenge traditional ways of working. We may see a new approach to a Theory of Change, identify related strategies to solve similar topics, and build a wider project that has a deeper set of connected factors that the linear logic model the portfolio began with. Encouraging diversity here opens up thinking and ways of designing work, to be more closely aligned with the needs of the communities. The people making decisions about their grant portfolios are more likely to bring unique insights and perspectives when their perspectives are valued. This is a huge opportunity for funders and power holders to step aside and learn, if they have the humility to do so, about what works and what doesn’t in their space. This can open up the space for new strategies funders will have overlooked, interconnected issues or actors that were previously unknown, and can lead to funding more relevant projects.

Finally, it can truly empower marginalised voices by centring their expertise. This is an opportunity to address historical and systemic injustices by opening up processes. PGM can be a powerful tool to shift power by actively listening to, and then acting upon, the expertise of the people funders serve.