Grantmaking with an equity lens

October 7, 2022

By Jamie Schloegel, Chief Executive Officer

Grantmaking with an equity lens

Before I started working on the “grantmaker” side of grants, I was a grant writer for years. One of the most frustrating parts of grant writing was how difficult and nerve-wracking it always was to talk to funders. Why? They had all the power. Funders were nearly always hard to reach, unwilling to review proposals, and sometimes even denied access to apply for eligible projects because they didn’t “think” their board would approve it. And forget about post-submittal support. I never had the opportunity to respond to questions from grantmakers, and denials seldom came with helpful feedback for next time.

When I started overseeing the competitive grant program here in 2018, movements like “Trust Based Philanthropy” and “Equitable Grantmaking” had just started percolating around the country in grantmaker circles. They call on funders to shift power, advance equity, and build mutually accountable relationships. That sounded like a dream. And it was about way more than just making it easier for people like me to apply.

The importance of equitable grantmaking

Our area of the country fosters some of the deepest disparities in the nation for health and educational outcomes across race. Most of the social issues our local nonprofits address are rooted in various forms of oppression. And because we want to help create social change here, we need to make our grantmaking program less burdensome and do a better job reaching marginalized communities and the nonprofits working with them.

Building equity into our grant program means creating new pathways to funding to help ensure applicants have the tools needed to succeed, and without barriers. We want our application process to be accessible, supportive, and responsive. A stark difference from what I had experienced before.

What are we doing to help?

We have much work to do, and are certainly not experts, yet we are excited to share some of the improvements we’ve started with:

• Enhanced grantee support – Nonprofits can access foundation staff for one-on-one technical support with both grant writing and understanding nonprofit compliance and finances. We also launched the Nonprofit Resource Center in 2021 with a board matching program, nonprofit health assessment tool, training opportunities, vendor list, and more.
• Community representation – We strive to fill our grant committee with people representative of the community and include the voices of folks who have a wide variety of experiences. We’ve increased diversity on the grant committee by 40 percent.
• Opportunity to explain – After grants are submitted, if the grant committee has questions about a request, nonprofits have an opportunity to explain before decisions are made.
• Fast turnaround – Grant decisions are made one month after each quarterly grant deadline, and grant checks are paid in full within a week of decisions being made.
• Unrestricted support – We award project-based grants and grants for general operating costs, and will award up to three years of support.
• Follow-up interviews – Grantees can either write their required follow-up report, or complete it interview-style with foundation staff.
• Grants to non-charitable organizations – Groups without a 501(c)3 can receive grants by using a fiscal sponsor, and both can apply at the same time (for different purposes)

Looking Forward

This list is just the beginning work in our goal of grantmaking through and equity lens, and we are open to feedback about how we can do better. Another idea we’re currently exploring is offering applicants the option of responding to grant questions with video instead of narrative writing.

We never can predict what community needs will bubble up with the most urgency at any given time. We can, however, stay committed to partnering with local nonprofits and using local data to ensure the help we have to offer is the help our community wants and needs.

If you have thoughts you’d like to share about other ways we can build equity into our grantmaking program, please reach out: Jamie Schloegel at jamie@laxcommfoundation.com.