Jamie Allison is Executive Director of the Walter & Elise Haas Fund and has served on the board of trustees of The Whitman Institute since 2014. I have worked in philanthropy for two decades and have been honored to lead the Walter & Elise Haas Fund (W&EHF) for just over four years. For over eight…
What makes for great relationships between funders and their nonprofit partners? We have always believed that it starts with respect, authenticity, and honesty across power differentials in ways that build trust over time. In fact, we have often written about ways to bridge power divides by being proactive, relational funders who don’t create conditions where…
A Trust-Based, Collaborative Relationship from the Start Thousand Currents became part of the Whitman Institute family in 2013, after an unexpectedly fruitful lunch meeting between Rajasvini Bhansali and John Esterle. “We got together to brainstorm what it would look like for Thousand Currents to model donor education–much like our [grantee] partners do political education in…
Headwaters Foundation in Missoula, Montana is a new health conversion foundation that has been committed to embracing trust-based philanthropy since its inception. This commitment has led to a number of innovations – including GO! Grants that are designed to put grant funds in the hands of grantees in less than a month – as well…