Building Power - National Committee For Responsive Philanthropy

Embark on a Power Moves journey to uncover how well you are supporting efforts and communities on the ground closest to the problems you are trying to solve.

Our research shows that funders who successfully make grants that strengthen capacity and leadership of underserved communities, and address root causes of inequities follow these guidelines:

They are explicit about advancing systemic equity for specific marginalized communities in their goals, strategies and operations.
They fund under-resourced communities so they are their own agents of change.
They fund cross-issue approaches.
They fund for the long term while also being responsive to emerging or urgent opportunities.

Download the Building Power Journey infographic

How well are you building power?

Find out now. Download Power Moves: Your essential philanthropy assessment guide to equity and justice.

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

Download POWER MOVES now

“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 Building Power section, you’ll find:

1. Building Power in Action: Hill-Snowdon Foundation.

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

What does it mean for us to advance equity? To build power?
What are our positive associations with the idea of building power and equity?
What are our negative associations? What assumptions or fears underlie them?

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

To what extent does the foundation embody equity, diversity and inclusion internally?
What evidence do stakeholders see that our current goals and strategies are likely to achieve more equitable systems and outcomes for marginalized communities?
How do we support and empower marginalized communities to define solutions and lead change?

4. Discussion guide to help your team analyze and reflect on your synthesized internal and external data and feedback. What does this information tell you about your current approaches? How might you apply new insights in your strategies and practices for greater effectiveness? Examples of questions include:

What surprised us about constituent feedback on this topic?
To what extent do we have a shared understanding with our grantees about how to build power to advance equity?
What are some outside-the-box ideas we’ve heard about that could help us support power building?
What additional information would we need to decide which strategies to pursue?

5. Next steps tools, including:

A visual aid to see where you are on the continuum, from beginning to building power to fully building power.
Several tips for implementing new power-building strategies, such as: evaluating your grantmaking with an equity lens.

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.