A Practical Roadmap to Funder Listening in This Moment
No matter how you look at it, the last year-plus has been a challenging one for foundations, nonprofits, and the people and communities they aim to support.
Our sector faced a perfect storm: rising demand for services, federal funding freezes and cuts, political attacks on nonprofits and philanthropy, a government shutdown, and philanthropic budgets that — even with many foundations increasing payouts — couldn’t stretch to meet growing needs. The Center for Effective Philanthropy’s recent report, “A Sector in Crisis,” confirms the scale of these pressures, with nonprofit leaders reporting increased community needs and serious concern about their ability to sustain essential services.
Yet it was also a year in which many funders stepped up, listening and responding with intention and care to what communities said they needed most.
When we wrote “Turn On Your Headlights” last February, we shared what funders and nonprofits were telling us at the time. They believed listening was essential in a moment of chaos, but they weren’t sure how to listen well without overburdening grantees already stretched thin, or without raising expectations they couldn’t meet.
A year later, we’re seeing something hopeful. Funders around the country are showing us what it looks like to navigate uncertainty by leaning into listening, not away from it.
Blog published on CEP.