Credo’s Tracy McFerrin and co-author Kathleen Boyle Dalen published Deepening Impact Through Relational Philanthropy in the Stanford Social Innovation Review. This article encourages a broader and more cooperative definition of community in philanthropy in order to unlock the power of relationships. The writers argue that funders fall into three traps with traditional definitions of community:
- Bringing in “grassroots” players to a plan that is essentially already fully formed to give the illusion of collaboration.
- Engaging a handpicked subset of nonprofit leaders and community providers to work on an issue, who often have pre-existing relationships, overlooking potentially highly knowledgeable others.
- Engaging individuals who lack lived experience on an issue only in carefully curated situations. Think of the CEOs who are invited into a rehearsed panel discussion instead of invited to join a working session where the aim is to surface what’s not working in a pilot project.
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