How to become more focused and equitable in grantmaking

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Taking a focused and equitable approach to grantmaking can lead to a greater social impact. 

Lauren O'Shaughnessy, Global Director of Impact at Macquarie Group Foundation, shared her perspective on the topic in a special presentation on Macquarie’s grants programme. 

 

“As a large financial institution, we feel should be doing as much as we can to support community organisations that are working out there on the frontline.”
Lauren O'Shaughnessy - Global Director of Impact at Macquarie Group Foundation

This is when Macquarie Group began their journey to a more focused, equitable grantmaking. Here are the steps they took to get there. 

1. Making the case

With the goal of having a greater social impact, the team looked externally and, from their research, it became clear they needed to be more focused in their grantmaking.

Changing their approach to grantmaking was going to be a big change for the team, but they had a strong case for making the commitment. 

What didn't change was their commitment to go beyond just grants and look for opportunities to connect their people and resources to the community organisations that they fund to bring an extra value to the partnership. 

2. Finding a focus 

So Macquarie looked at where their employees were giving and identified a cause that their people were really passionate about: young people facing barriers. 

They commissioned research to look into the challenges that young people face in Australia. Here they found that education, employment and training stood out as areas where they could add value. From there, they moved from supporting a range of causes to a more focused approach of supporting young people into education and employment. 

However, after a few years, they started to think about whether they needed to tighten their focus even more. 

They once again looked externally and gathered evidence of these gaps and determined:

  1. Young people are underemployed and there are not enough entry level jobs for them.
  2. The solution needs to involve employers.
  3. Young people facing barriers to employment should be part of the solution to their problems.

 

“We are making better grants as a result because the evidence has shown us where the gaps are and where the interventions are needed. We're also now funding a portfolio of grant partners who are all working towards a very specific issue and we can invest more in them as a result.”        Lauren O'Shaughnessy - Global Director of Impact at Macquarie Group Foundation

Becoming more equitable in their approach 

The final step was taking this focused method to the next level by building a more equitable programme.

Again, they looked externally and engaged experts. By working with an agency in the U.S., they increased their knowledge on issues of equity, power, language and trust based-philanthropy. 

They also found evidence that being an equitable grantmaker will lead to greater social impact for the communities that they're working to benefit. And thanks to an equity audit of their entire grantmaking process, they received some recommendations of ways to improve. 

Enhancing the grants process

It's important to unlearn old ways of working to find a solution that more deeply helps the community and removes any potential bias from the process. 

Macquarie is looking to more directly fund organisations and activities that are making the world more just and equitable. In their case, this includes supporting a minority-led funding organisation and creating a racial equity fund. 

They’re also moving away from an invitation only grant process to an expression of interest process, which opens up who can pitch ideas to the foundation beyond their networks. 

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Take on the workload burden

Character and word limits in the grant application may help grantmakers understand what organisations do but this isn’t an equitable approach to the process. In this format, organisations who are already typically under-resourced are forced to answer the same question they've been asked numerous times, but in a format that suits the company. 

Macquarie believes in taking on the workload burden by finding the information they’re looking for in the way that the organisation wishes to present it. They’ve even taken this one step further by writing the grant application for the charities, which has seriously improved relationships with their partners. 

A few other recommended changes included defaulting to multi-year grants and core operating expenses such as payroll, rent, equipment and utilities and allowing applicants to decide how they measure success. 

Prioritise grants to organisations who are inclusive of beneficiary communities 

Finally, it’s important to acknowledge that the voice and lived experience of those facing disadvantage has been historically excluded. To combat this, Macquarie prioritises funding to organisations who are inclusive of the beneficiary community. 

This means identifying organisations that are led by and for those that are impacted by the cause. 

An example of this is Macquarie’s support of the Foundation for Young Australians, which empowers young people to make the change that they want to see in the world. Through their social enterprise YLab, they do this by directly employing young people who have lived experience to co-design solutions to challenges they face. This process helps change employer attitudes on what those young people can bring to their organisation and creates improved services designed by young people themselves. 

Streamlining processes with a grants platform

Finally, Macquarie has partnered with Benevity to help streamline and improve their grant making processes. 

This will lead to more efficiency both internally and for the partner causes. All of which will bring about more positive impact on the recipient charities.

Keeping a pulse on future CSR and ESG trends

Our Benevity Forum events play a pivotal role in revealing regional trends that we know will impact the future of doing good. Keep an eye out for future learnings coming from our upcoming forums in London, Paris, Frankfurt and Zurich, and of course our annual Benevity Live! event happening in May in the United States. You won’t want to miss these insights from the world’s most purpose-driven brands!