Knight Foundation Philadelphia Grantee Gathering from Knight Foundation on Vimeo.

The only way we learn as a foundation is through the work of our grantees.

If our Knight Philadelphia grantees remember only one thing from my interview with Sandy Shea at the recent gathering at the Barnes Foundation, I hope it’s that. It is asking a lot of our grantees to be brutally honest with us about where they believe their work is succeeding and where they feel progress is lagging, but it is exactly what we need to hear.  It’s the only way we get smarter together.  

The grantee convening in Philadelphia marked what I hope will be one of many similar gatherings within our communities and across our program areas. As I watched grantees from arts, tech and journalism trade secrets on topics from media relations on a shoestring budget to fundraising from the ground up, I was struck by how much we could learn from each other.

These lessons go beyond grant dollars and reveal Knight’s true intent: to create spaces for sharing ideas and resources, as a way to strengthen our communities. They also offer an opportunity for all of us to be more forthright, so to speak, and have an even exchange. 

The relationship between any foundation and a grantee typically feels inherently unequal.  I know.  I’ve spent a lot more time as a grantee than as a funder.  It’s easy to feel like you have to put the best possible spin on everything to win favor with funders and hide every mistake.  Sometimes I felt like I was practicing sleight of hand, hoping to distract funders from the things that just weren’t working like we thought they would.

But that kind of distraction just slows down the learning.  And our communities can’t afford it.  As funders, we need to encourage grantees to dream it, do it, learn from it, and then fix it fast.  We need to make iteration, which implies “failure” of a sort, part of the plan.  We need to expect and allow for adjustments in grants as plans unfold and experience is gained.

The need to learn from our grantees is one of the primary reasons we need closer, more honest, more transparent relationships with them.  If we can see ourselves as partners in learning—each of us bringing something of equal value to the relationship—together we will get smarter faster and our communities will be the beneficiaries.

That’s why events like the Philly grantee gathering are so important. They shape a culture of openness and create connections. We look forward to sharing new ways of working together.

By Carol Coletta, vice president of community and national initiatives at Knight Foundation