Leaning into the Messiness of Authentic Engagement: Fostering Reciprocity in Foundation Strategy, Learning, and Evaluation

Over the last several years, numerous foundations have endeavored to forge deeper relationships with grantees and challenge the status quo in strategy development and evaluation design. Encouraged by efforts such as the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project and the Equitable Evaluation Initiative, some funders are seeking to redefine how they engage grantees and field partners by navigating the nuances of power dynamics, mutual interests, and genuine collaboration. While there are encouraging signs of progress, there are also plenty of examples of foundation and nonprofit leaders getting stuck or reverting to the modus operandi. Competing agendas, the lack of sustained political will, and general inertia often undermine equity-driven efforts, making it challenging to translate commitments into practice. How can foundations and nonprofits committed to equity and inclusion continue to lean in rather than step back? The Irvine Foundation has a long history of listening to community and workers, specifically. To help shape the strategy of a new statewide policy advocacy initiative, the foundation convened a smaller subset of grantees (leaders of community organizing agencies, statewide advocacy and immigrant rights organizations, movement coalition leaders, and research partners) who represented an emerging community of ecosystem players. Once the strategy was approved by the foundation board, the same group introduced the strategy to Irvine's grantee partners and continued to shape a collaborative "vision of success" and the initiative's approach to learning and evaluation. Based on interviews with foundation staff, consultants, and grantees, this article elevates key insights from this engagement process and efforts to move beyond listening toward authentic, early, and iterative engagement of grantees in philanthropic strategy and evaluation design. We explore what it takes to lean into the messiness of relational philanthropy and power dynamics.