As co-founder, program director, and lead fundraiser of a nonprofit organization, I became fascinated by the level of trust between nonprofits, foundations, and beneficiaries. Why don’t many nonprofits trust beneficiaries more or at least enough to listen to them? Why don’t many foundations trust nonprofits more, and vice versa? What could all parties do to build and deepen trust with each other? How is this lack of trust limiting philanthropic impact?

These questions led me to earn an M.A. in Philanthropic Studies at Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy where, as my part of my degree, I conducted research on trust-based philanthropy. In my research, I noticed that most articles written about trust-based philanthropy are written by funders for funders. This makes sense given that research shows that funders are most likely to change their behavior based on other funders and that funders have a central role to play in addressing the inherent power imbalance between funders and nonprofits.

However, this is concerning because a conversation exclusively among funders does not reflect the tripartite nature of a funding relationship (funder, nonprofit, and beneficiary), it is an incomplete funder-influence strategy, and it perpetuates the false notion that nonprofits are passive, less powerful recipients.

In my work, I don’t expect unconditional trust from funders – nor does the trust-based philanthropy movement advocate for this. The movement recognizes that not all nonprofits are the same and that they vary in effectiveness, but it rightfully also challenges funders to try to trust more.

At its best, trust-based philanthropy challenges both funders and nonprofits to view each other as members of the same team. It honors that nonprofits and funders can both do things that build, damage, and deepen trust. It envisions a world where high-trust partnerships between funders and nonprofits achieve greater philanthropic impact.

High impact partnerships

I don’t believe that we need to be best friends with all our funders. In fact, if we were, we would likely have less time for our work and defocus from the most important relationships in our work – the people and communities we’re striving to impact – and therefore reduce our impact. However, we can build high trust relationships that lay the foundation for high impact partnerships. I’ve found 10 ways, through my research and personal experience, that can build and deepen trust with funders. Here are the first five:

1. Do good work.

The best fundraising any organization can do is to do good work. No matter how skilled you may be at writing a grant or making a pitch, none of that matters if you’re not making progress on your mission. Indeed, See What I Mean, an Iowa-based social impact consulting firm, identifies reliability and competence as two of seven key mechanisms for trust. Reliability is about doing what you say you’re going to do, and competence is about doing that well. Think about any relationship in your life. Family, friends, and romantic partners that follow through on what they say they are going to do are likely your most trusted relationships.

2. Celebrate impact.

Don’t be shy about your successes. Tell the stories and share the data. Doing good work is the most important part of fundraising but you do need to share about it. Sharing can take many forms and be as complex as a detailed annual report or as simple as a social media post that you email or text to a funder.

3. Be vulnerable with challenges.

I conducted several interviews with foundation staff in my city and heard universally that funders want nonprofits to function as partners in the work, which includes sharing challenges. One funder reflected, “I have a hard time resonating with people who are always trying to sell me something instead of partnering.” They admonished: “Fail honestly, transparently, foundations don’t always need the bright, shiny version.” Another observed, “[Trust] comes through a relationship, it comes through candor, it comes through being in the foxhole together at different times, weathering different challenges.” It can be scary to share about challenges because we’re afraid to lose funding, but I believe that the only challenges you should be afraid to share about are ones that you’re not actively working to improve upon. If you can say “this happened for this reason and we’re doing this to change it for the future,” that demonstrates competency and gives you an opportunity to follow through.

4. Be authentic in the relationship.

Funders, like all people, tend to trust and like people they perceive as more similar to themselves. We all need to become more aware of this and actively work to challenge these schemas. We also need to fight the inclination to alter our personalities to make funders like us. People notice inauthenticity and it inhibits a trusting relationship.

5. Learn about funders’ roles.

There’s a lot that funders don’t know about our work but there’s also a lot we don’t know about theirs. This might sound naïve, but my biggest improvement as a fundraiser came when I learned that most foundation staff don’t have decision-making power of grants. Instead, I learned, a program officer’s role typically includes meeting with a prospective grantee, reading their application, writing a summary, and making a recommendation to their Board. Particularly with foundation staff, ask about their role. You’ll learn a lot about how to navigate their process, develop empathy for their work, feel like you’re more on their team, and create space for them to ask more questions about your work. I’ve found that many foundation staff members don’t feel trusted by their executive leadership or Board – in the same way you may not feel trusted by funders. Perhaps this is an opening for you to share how you feel the same way about some of your relationships with funders.

This list is certainly not all-inclusive, but they importantly position nonprofits as active and powerful participants in the funding relationship, and they can be effectively used to develop stronger, more sustainable, and higher impact partnerships between nonprofits and funders.

Watch for Part 2 of this article in the March 30th edition of Hilborn Charity eNews.

Andrew Spector is co-founder and program director of Tulsa Changemakers, a program of Leadership Tulsa that builds capacity in youth, adults, and systems to support youth in driving positive impact in Tulsa right now and into the future. Andrew holds an M.A. in Philanthropic Studies from Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy and a B.A. in Psychology from the Honors College at College of Charleston.