Grantmaking Vision
At Groundswell, we’re aiming to help a new generation of philanthropists learn to fund advocacy more strategically. Our team of founders and advisors have been on both sides of philanthropy – both giving to the climate movement and other social movements, and asking philanthropic foundations for funds. The principles that guide our giving are:
Challenging the power imbalance between granter and grantee.
We’ve been inspired by shared decision making vehicles like the North Star Fund in New York city that engages community organisers and activists to be leaders in deciding where grants are made. We see donors and social change makers as equal partners in taking action on climate change. As donors, our aim is to see Australia make progress tackling the climate crisis. We don’t have the ability to do this, no matter how much money we have, without strategic, hard working and dedicated campaigners and community organisers. We are grateful to the groups we fund for doing their critical work, and proud to have an opportunity to partner with them to help them scale their impact. Too often, the old model of philanthropy saw foundations as holding all the power - and they used it to make grantees jump through hoops with long and detailed grant applications, due diligence and reporting. We’re determined that our processes for these three areas don’t take up more time than is absolutely necessary for our grantees - because we need them to be doing their important work building power and changing the world, not filling out forms! One reason we feel confident to take this approach is that we’re only focusing on one area (climate advocacy) in one country (Australia). It’s a small community, and we’re lucky enough to have the expertise in our members, advisors and founders who can quickly tell us which groups are doing important work and are respected by their peers in the climate movement.
‘Funding at the Speed of Trust’
This is a phrase coined by Alicia Garza, one of the co-founders of the Movement for Black Lives, and widely promoted by the hugely respected philanthropist Jason Franklin. Historically, philanthropy is a slow moving vehicle, often with months of applications, shortlisting and due diligence. But scientists tell us we have less than 10 years to turn the climate crisis around before we reach “tipping points” after which our climate passes the point of no return. In addition, the Australian climate movement is growing at a rapid pace and we want Groundswell to keep up. Groundswell runs 4 grant rounds a year, and the process is quick: 4 weeks from the start to end, so organisations know soon whether they can go ahead with the project, or new staff hire, or infrastructure, that they have pitched us to fund. It’s important to note that we would advise any of our members to take longer than 2-3 weeks when assessing large, multi-year funding proposals outside of Groundswell. But for our relatively small grants of $40,000, we feel strongly that the process should not stretch on. Our reporting and acquittals process will follow in the same spirit.
Learning about advocacy and social change together, in both theory and practice.
Most of our members, like most Australians, have a relatively low knowledge base about social movements and advocacy. We’re committed to giving our members the opportunity to learn and experience first hand what it takes to make social change happen; deepening our knowledge of politics, power, movement building and community organising. Whilst understanding that many of us are time poor, we actively seek out opportunities for our members to get involved in the climate movement in a meaningful way. This could involve using their skills, talents and networks to amplify the impact of climate advocacy groups.