Grantmaking: A Relational Enterprise
Grantmaking is inescapably a relational enterprise, which means that what passes between grantmaker and grantseeker is more than mere socializing; their relationship is the strategic bridge over which money, lessons learned, and ultimately social change must pass. It works only if it is a mutually respectful relationship of peers, not a patron-supplicant system. Given the inequalities of the power dynamic, however, this relationship of peers is easier to conceptualize than to accomplish.
The relational nature of grantmaking offers many opportunities for abuse. “It's not what you know, but who you know” goes the cynical old saw, and nowhere is it potentially more true than in foundations. It is unfortunately ...
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