Be a legitimate, influential and relevant voice on issues you care about

With POWER MOVES, you can now discover how well you are leveraging other tools at your disposal beyond grants to advance your mission, values and equity goals by
WIELDING POWER.

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Embark on a Power Moves journey to uncover how well you are exercising public leadership beyond your grantmaking to catalyze equitable, lasting change.

Our research shows that funders who successfully and responsibly leverage their reputation, financial assets and capacity to advance equitable goals follow these guidelines:

  • They convene grantees and community stakeholders while playing supportive participant roles at other convening tables.
  • They organize and collaborate with peers in philanthropy and other sectors such as government.

They bring visibility to issues and elevate the voices of marginalized community members by using their reputation and expertise to inform, raise awareness and advocate.

How well are you wielding power?

“As a foundation committed to health equity, we are always looking for tools and examples of best practices to help us become more effective grantmakers. Whether you seek to use your grantmaking dollars to advance equity, build authentic and trusting relationships with your grantees or leverage all your assets and resources to catalyze change, POWER MOVES is a resource that can guide the way..”

– Tina Eshaghpour

Director of Organizational Learning and Evaluation
The California Wellness Foundation

Power Moves Advisory Committee Member

Inside the Wielding Power section, you’ll find:

1. Wielding Power in action: The Pittsburgh Foundation.

2. Kick-off group exercise for your assessment team, to explore questions such as:

  • What does it mean for our foundation and its leaders to wield power?
  • What are our positive associations with the idea of wielding power? What excites us about this?
  • How have we seen peers or our community successfully wield power?

3. Sample questionnaires to guide the collection of internal data and external feedback vital to your assessment. Topics include:

  • Does the foundation have guidelines for taking public stands on current issues or events? How often has a leader of the foundation taken public stands in the last year?
  • Has the foundation used its convening, communications and engagement tools to amplify the positions, voices and activities of marginalized constituencies?
  • Has the foundation ever offered to use its assets and investment tools to support grantee or community goals?

4. Discussion guide to help you make meaning of the synthesized internal and external data and feedback and engage in group reflection. Examples of questions include:

  • What kinds of leadership strategies (if any) are we pursuing?
  • What kinds of leadership strategies (if any) do we seem to be avoiding?
  • How might some of these leadership strategies help us better achieve our goals? The goals of our grant partners?
  • How do we need to show up as a leader to most effectively support the issue or community we care about?

5. Next steps tools, including:

  • A visual aid to see where you are on the continuum, from beginning to wield power to fully wielding power.
  • Several tips for implementing new power-wielding strategies, such as: anticipating pushback when you advocate on issues.

Not sure if you’re ready for a Power Moves self-assessment?

Find out with this Readiness Assessment Checklist. And if you’re not yet ready, the checklist offers next steps to get you closer to a Power Moves self-assessment.

We’re here to help.

Don’t know where to start? Our Philamplify team can help you on your power journey for equity and justice. Contact us at (202) 387-9177 x31 or powermoves@ncrp.org.

Yes, I want to amp up my foundation’s impact to solve critical issues that our communities are facing today.

Discover the other two dimensions of power that can amp up your giving

 

BUILDING POWER

Catalyze equitable long-term solutions instead of temporary fixes.

 

SHARING POWER

Earn the trust of peers, partners and the communities you serve.

POWER MOVES: Your essential philanthropy assessment guide for equity and justice

POWER MOVES: Your essential philanthropy assessment guide for equity and justice

Uncover how your philanthropy can break through barriers to lasting equitable impact with this comprehensive, one-of-a-kind self-assessment toolkit.

Download my copy of Power Moves
AM I READY FOR A POWER MOVES SELF-ASSESSMENT?

AM I READY FOR A POWER MOVES SELF-ASSESSMENT?

A brief eight-question survey to determine if you’re ready to start on a POWER MOVES journey.

Start my Readiness Assessment now
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Case studies, articles, books and other resources to enrich your POWER MOVES journey. We’re constantly adding to this library so keep checking back for updates.

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ADVISORY COMMITTEE & REVIEWERS

ADVISORY COMMITTEE & REVIEWERS

Meet the leading experts and practitioners from the sector who provided invaluable guidance during the development of POWER MOVES.

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Answers from the POWER MOVES team.

Answers from the POWER MOVES team.

Answers from the POWER MOVES team.

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