What if we as funders started with trust, instead of making potential partners “earn” it? Vu Le starts our sibling blog posts today by questioning the assumption that grant seekers need to prove their basic trustworthiness to funders. Indeed, up-ending this premise has been inherent in TWI’s approach since we started making grants. TWI’s 9 Practices…
Most grants and reports happen on paper. Here at the Whitman Institute (TWI), we like to do things a little differently. Recently, we invited current and potential supporters for one of our core grantees, Voice of Witness (VOW), for lunch at the office. Our relationship with VOW had come full-circle: Six years earlier, TWI Co-Executive…
The idea of restorative philanthropy was provoked for me at ivoh’s Restorative Narrative Colloquium last weekend. Restorative Narrative is an approach to storytelling (e.g. journalistic, documentary, etc.) that walks with a place or community over time, usually after a tragedy, to show how rebuilding and restoration are emerging. It contrasts (in both content and process)…
Since I returned from a two-month sabbatical in September, Pia has nudged me to share reflections about the experience. I’ve taken my time in doing so. It’s because of my natural procrastination around writing, but also because I felt my main insight three months off would be better than two! I actually haven’t written anything…
This article was originally published on TWI grantee Building Movement Project’s blog. We definitely feel it’s worth reposting. We’ve also added BMP’s latest report to our inspiration section. Written by Sean Thomas-Breitfeld Recently, the nonprofit sector has been buzzing about the idea of feedback loops. Nonprofits are adapting customer feedback models from the private sector…