Shifting Power Through Collaboration: Redefining Philanthropy Together
Written by Mohammad Jawad Shahabi, Program Manager
Last year, the WES Mariam Assefa Fund partnered with the Foundation of Greater Montreal (FGM) to support its 2023 Collective Fund for Social Equity, a participatory grantmaking initiative and a collaboration between several funders focused on supporting asylum seekers and refugees.
Asylum seekers and refugees face significant challenges in Montreal, such as finding affordable housing, overcoming employment barriers, and navigating language obstacles. Each problem tends to reinforce and exacerbate the other; for example, the tight housing market, combined with discrimination and high costs, makes securing housing very difficult. Entering the job market with precarious status, and accessing health care and mental health support all remain challenging because of systemic complexity. Meanwhile, social isolation, legal hurdles, and discrimination further complicate the efforts of asylum seekers and refugees to integrate, underscoring the need for comprehensive support.
At the same time, organizations providing frontline services or advocating for asylum seekers face challenges due to a lack of support and access to public funding. As a funder focused on underserved communities and underfunded organizations, the Fund saw a crucial need in Montreal and sought to work with a funder in the area which had close relationships on the ground.
FGM was the ideal partner for us, as the organization planned to take a participatory grantmaking approach through its Collective Fund for Social Equity. Participatory grantmaking is a model the Fund views as an impactful way of shifting power to communities and truly understanding community needs. Participatory grantmaking involves community members as the ones who identify funding priorities and make grant decisions with the funder’s resources, rather than the funder itself. The Fund launched its first participatory grantmaking pilot in 2021 in the Peel region of Ontario and has been dedicated to building on this work across our grants. More funders have been taking this approach in recent years, and FGM decided to embark on a participatory grantmaking project in the 2023 iteration of its Collective Fund for Social Equity as part of a broader shift towards equity, justice, and trust-based philanthropy.
With pooled funding from FGM, the Fund, and other funders, including the Trottier Family Foundation, the Pathy Family Foundation, the Lucie and André Chagnon Foundation, the Tiphane Fund at EBCF, and the Mirella and Lino Saputo Foundation, the Collective Fund for Social Equity was designed to be led by community members to ensure that funding decisions were driven by community needs.
Ultimately, in December 2023, the Collective Fund for Social Equity made grants to 16 organizations (currently 22 organizations with an additional 6 organizations funded in 2024) that are working with asylum seekers, refugees, or people without status, or with temporary or precarious status in greater Montreal. The grants focus on improving administrative or legal services, influencing public policy, and empowering individuals and groups. For example, The Refugee Centre is supporting asylum seekers with housing and legal needs, offering workshops to support their asylum application process, and helping to address language barriers, digital divides, and potential fraud. The Immigrant Workers Centre is developing leadership training on defending workers’ rights and ensuring decent work for out-of-status workers or workers who have temporary or precarious status.
Reflecting on the participatory grantmaking process one year later, we spoke with Vira Kovalova, Community Partnerships Advisor at FGM, who shared key lessons and recommendations.
First, there is a need to involve community experts as early as possible, says Vira. FGM contacted community stakeholders at the preliminary consultation stage, conducting nearly 20 conversations and a participatory design workshop with various organizations and activists. This allowed community members to help identify target populations, priority issues, desired funding conditions, and, later, to evaluate applications. FGM offered participants flexibility: some focused solely on defining funding guidelines, and others engaged in both the planning and evaluation stages. This strategy not only enhanced the initiative’s success, but also broadened FGM’s network by tapping into Montreal’s vibrant community sector.
“One way we define success is [by] the ability to shift resources to the populations and organizations that are historically underfunded and are facing significant difficulties in accessing funding,” says Vira. The Collective Fund for Social Equity established a participatory committee to leverage community expertise, consisting of 16 representatives who ultimately made the grantmaking decisions. The committee’s goal was to fund emerging initiatives and those by and for the affected populations. The participatory nature has been crucial. It has fostered a collaborative decision-making process centered on ecosystem needs rather than competition.
Vira says, “We wanted to move away from the decision-making model that emphasizes competition between organizations and comparing the individual virtues of each application and build a process centered on the overall needs of the ecosystem.”
Reflecting on FGM’s experience, she highlights the value of continuous feedback from committee stakeholders to avoid stagnation and ensure that the process evolves to meet community needs and expectations.
Next, Vira underscores the ongoing challenge of sharing power and responsibility while providing sufficient support and leadership. A major lesson learned is that there is no single blueprint for participatory grantmaking; instead, it involves continually asking and addressing important questions.
“The participatory process is very resource-heavy for the team and for the committee members. If we want to do it, we have to be ready to dedicate time and effort to organizing logistics, managing workloads, and accompanying committee members,” Vira says.
“We must remember that people and organizations who provided the most valuable perspective are often the most underresourced. We keep asking ourselves how to respectfully engage their expertise without overburdening them.”
What can other funders learn from this process? Vira recommends that funders engage with others who have tried participatory grantmaking to share insights and learn from their experiences.
Being mindful of potential conflicts of interest is critical. Vira emphasizes the importance of having solid policies in place.
“We asked our committee members how they felt about conflicts of interest and if they believed it undermined the participatory process in which organizations could apply for funding and simultaneously be on the advisory committee that makes funding decisions. The unanimous answer was that the expertise these organizations bring to the table is well worth the risk, but it is important to have solid policies to recognize conflict of interest, minimize it when possible, and support the committee to deal with any conflicts of interest that arise.”
It’s also important to remember that participatory grantmaking is not an all-or-nothing approach, she says.
“Figure out how participatory grantmaking fits into your foundation’s governance structures,” Vira advises, noting the need to identify how to delegate decision-making power, ensuring that boards are ready and comfortable with sharing power even before starting an advisory committee.
The value of this collaboration and expansion of participatory grantmaking is evident. We have seen firsthand how this approach can shift power and drive effective, context-responsive outcomes for communities. With a strong commitment to participatory grantmaking, the Fund is exploring other initiatives for 2025 that build on the learning and successes of our participatory grantmaking projects, both past and present.
