Andy Mendez, MBA CORE Fellow, building a literature library

Andy Mendez, current MBA student at the Heller School and SIF fellow with the CORE program, is joining us for the fall semester to help build a library for a future "paper" about many of the concepts that are core to the cohort.  Over the coming issues, we hope to share with you a range of articles and topics and, going forward, have an online library with access for all. Andy has spent time finding and reading the following articles:

Gibson, C.M. (2017). Participatory grantmaking: Has its time come? Retrieved September 3, 2022, from https://cdn.givingcompass.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/02074824/participatory_grantmaking-lmv7.pdf

In this paper, Cynthia Gibson insists that while inclusion of public participation techniques are gaining momentum among US nonprofits, this movement remains largely sporadic and ad hoc. Gibson suggested that a common language is necessary to codify the work of participatory philanthropy (of which participatory grantmaking is one component). Such a common language would support the sustainability and wider adoption of these practices. Barriers to such adoption include a lack of hard data on field outcomes. This data is necessary to validate the assumption that including grantees in decision-making leads to better investment decisions and better use of funder dollars.

Hauger, T. D. (2022). Nothing about us without us: Innovating grantmaking processes with participatory methodology. Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research, 0(0), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/13511610.2022.2053069

According to Tyler Hauger, the interest in participatory grantmaking is occurring, at least in part, because communities have recognized that our current global challenges are too large and too complex to be solved by just one entity or organization. Collaborative approaches are no longer a "nice-to-have" but a "need-to-have." He argues that, for funders who are hesitant about the move toward greater public participation, participatory grantmaking provides a soft entry point for funders to explore potential ways to incorporate greater inclusion of grantee voices.