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Concordia University Concordia celebrates 50 years!
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Concordia University Concordia celebrates 50 years!

The SHIFT Centre for Social Transformation

The SHIFT Centre for Social Transformation

SHIFT Participatory Granting:
Cultivating intimacy & working with risk

by Richenda Grazette

This article is adapted from a presentation SHIFT gave at Philanthropic Foundations Canada’s national conference in September 2024.  

From the high-level decisions of our Fund Disbursement Hub and Steering Committee to the staff creating application forms and the selection committees disbursing funding, we all work together to spread SHIFT’s resources across our existing and new partner relationships. That means that each year there are about a dozen people directly and another dozen indirectly involved in designing and delivering SHIFT’s funding programs.  

We have learned that sharing power in this way requires a delicate balancing act between structure and openness. With this many people involved, there is inherent risk that we stray away from our core mission, vision, and values by funding outside of them.

At SHIFT, we are in an immense position of privilege thanks to current funding and place within the university that allows us to work toward collectively held decisions and true community accountability, and to experiment with dynamic models of learning. We don’t always get it right, but what's beautiful about this model is the potential present for working together through the unpredictable, including conflicts. The value is already there, regardless of the outcomes. Like a garden, the medicine that comes from building trust and relationship with your environment is as important as the fruit that flourishes there.

Six things to keep SHIFT's participatory granting model evolving and thriving

Slide with a photograph of a group gathered talknig in the SHIFT offices. The slide reads "Strong criteria, values, and definitions tailored to each fund".

1. Strong criteria, values, and definitions

We need a clear list of criteria for our selection committees to work from so that they know what we mean when we talk about "funding in line with our values". This doesn’t mean just creating a list of vague and open-ended criteria (ex: community connection) but developing our own clear definitions that include different scenarios for how each may be applied to our funding structure and with whom we choose to partner. For example, to SHIFT community connection is anchored in leadership from those most impacted by social issues being addressed, that they are creating direction for the projects being implemented and they operate in a “by us, for us” model.

Slide with a photograph of an audience gathered at an event, with the person in focus speaking. The slide reads "Recruiting for intimacy and diversity".

2. Recruiting for intimacy and diversity

Our selection committees need to be flexible and representative, while also ensuring there’s space for every voice to be heard. We recruit for a balance of perspectives and professional diversity, anchoring in the depth of understanding our members have about the issues at hand rather than ticking identity boxes. The only rule we have is that at least a third of participants in our selection committees are funded partners that have been through the process.

We also keep our selection committees small (groups of no more than five). Even when there are too many applicants for one group to read, we come up with different systems to maintain intimacy (for example, a model in which applications pass through a first round of “readers” who give a shortlist to a second selection committee that makes final decisions). This makes everyone’s voices easier to hear.

Slide with a photograph of an audience gathered at an event, with one person speaking. The slide reads "Investing in robust, holistic, and paid trainings".

3. Investing in robust, holistic, and paid training 

Selection Committees participate in one mandatory paid 3-hour training session that requires reading a series of preparatory documents.

Training includes a general understanding of SHIFT, our fund objectives and how they fit into our overall strategy, our decision-making processes, a deep dive into each of our criteria areas and approaches like humility, openness, and qualitative assessment. We also include a "mock assessment" of a fake application to allow members to practice their learnings, ask questions, and for staff to refine the process as needed. 

Slide with a photograph of three individuals in conversation, two with their back to the camera. The slide reads "Engaging a variety of tools for effective decision-making".

4. Engaging a variety of tools for effective decision-making

Even after training, misalignments between our selection committee members are still inevitable. We know realistically that selection committee members are busy people who don't always remember our training, and they can also have their own drivers and biases that diverge from our criteria. We don't expect them to all agree or share the same perspectives (indeed, we don't want that!), but we do work to hold alignment with our core mission, vision, and values.

Staff facilitators are equipped with a strong set of voting procedures as well as a range of facilitation tools designed to keep members on track and remind them of their training throughout the deliberation. Examples of these include ensuring "calling out" unhealthy speaker rotation, reminders of the core mission, and ample time for independent reflection.

A slide with a photograph of three individuals sitting around a table laughing together, with two of the individuals facing the camera. The slide reads "Making space for play and change".

5. Making space for play & change

We always try to be flexible in our work and allow ourselves to learn from our community members about not just community needs, but also how to be a better funder. When we say “play” it does mean trying to keep the process light and relaxed, but also a commitment openness to experimentation from the very beginning. We like to enter every funding round doing at least one thing differently than last time, in order to experiment with models and approaches. We also elicit regular feedback from applicants and selection committee members to ensure our continued evolution.

A slide with a photograph of an audience at an event, with three people in the front row in focus laughing. The slide reads "Striking a balance between challenging and letting go".

6. Striking a balance between challenging and letting go

Our facilitators need to make space for being challenged by selection committee members too - something we consider the ultimate success story in our participatory granting model. Our selection committee members to remind us to check our own biases as stewards of the program criteria, and to tell us when we are moving too quickly through the process. We work from the belief that even though we give the training, staff aren’t experts any more than our selection committee members are; we invite them in as much to hold SHIFT accountable to our values as to select teams to fund.

 
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