One philanthropy’s efforts to make grantmaking participatory

Five migrant worker leaders from four countries gathered in Nairobi, Kenya, in April, alongside staff from the American-based organization Humanity United. They were there for an experiment of sorts — these five people had developed a grantmaking strategy for a specific tranche of Humanity United’s funds. And they were in Nairobi to make the final decision on which organizations would receive it. The money is specifically devoted to improving the lives of migrant workers and survivors working in Gulf countries. It’s a new approach for Humanity United, a philanthropy supported by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam. They are delving into participatory grantmaking — an approach where rather than just consulting people impacted by an issue, it goes further to actually cede decision-making power to those impacted so they can decide where to allocate funding. This is one of two programs within the organization taking this approach — the other is focused on racial justice and equity in three American cities. Humanity United is hoping to create a template for this type of work within the organization, and if proven successful, to increase the amount of grant funding dispersed this way. It’s a growing practice working to bridge more intimately philanthropy with the grassroots in hopes that programming will reflect what communities prioritize rather than what’s prescribed by outsiders. But there can be some resistance. “Philanthropy holds a lot of money and with that money comes a lot of power. This is essentially a process where we are ceding that and that’s hard for people to do — both from the program staff standpoint, but also from the leadership standpoint,” said Vijay Simhan, director of forced labor and human trafficking at Humanity United. “Some of the more sort of traditional philanthropies that we work with, and partners, I think, are less inclined to sort of take this approach,” he added. Labor exploitation Migrant workers move to the Gulf for jobs in areas such as construction, hospitality, security, or domestic labor. They predominantly come from Asia and Africa and can face a host of labor abuses and exploitation. They can be forced to pay recruitment fees, which they often must pay back with interest — putting them into debt. Employers sometimes withhold pay until that debt is repaid. The job given can also be completely different from what they signed up for. One of the migrant worker leaders who is part of the participatory grantmaking process at Humanity United said that when he traveled to the Gulf, he was making about $185 a month for a cleaning job — and he has a university degree. He also had to pay back about $2,600 in recruitment fees to agents, although the law says he shouldn’t have had to pay anything. He didn’t have a contract when he arrived and was put in a shared living space with eight people in one bedroom. “There are a whole lot of humiliations — salaries not paid, some of them their passports were confiscated,” he said of the experiences of his fellow migrant workers. He runs an organization to improve labor rights for those from his home country in Bahrain. In some countries, there are laws against these practices but they may not be enforced. In others, the laws aren’t in place. And labor organizing isn’t widely accepted in most Gulf countries. Strategy building and grant dispersal Humanity United saw the 2022 World Cup in Qatar as a moment to leverage the international spotlight to improve labor conditions — specifically focusing on Nepalis working in Qatar. But the organization was at the center of this strategy, deciding what to prioritize and which organizations to fund. Starting in 2021, the organization’s staff started to work to get internal buy-in to move in the direction of participatory grantmaking. Five people — from Nepal, Cameroon, Sierra Leone, and the Philippines — formed the steering committee. This includes migrant workers and survivors — all with leadership roles within their communities, including leading organizations focused on improving labor conditions in the Gulf. Due to the risks associated with labor organizing in Gulf states, they have chosen to remain anonymous to avoid potential retribution. The group first gathered in Kathmandu in 2022. They met three times in the lead-up before meeting in Nairobi, including another meeting in Kathmandu and Singapore. There were calls at least twice a month, and the committee was asked to review materials. They spent about 1 1/2 years crafting their grantmaking strategy. Humanity United compensated them for their time. A crucial part was building trust among Humanity United’s staff and the steering committee so that they would feel comfortable engaging with this process in a way that genuinely reflected their priorities, Simhan said. This is a group of people who have often had their trust broken by recruiters and employers. Part of this includes having a staff member devoted to ensuring their well-being — guiding them through travel and making sure their needs are met. It also included staff members taking the time to connect with them on a personal level. “The degree of honesty, the degree of openness that they have exhibited, is quite good because they have actually absorbed us like we are part of theirs,” a steering committee member said. “It gives us that sense of belonging.” Another important element included ensuring these people were protected because of the risks involved with labor organizing in the Gulf. The Funder Safeguard Collaborative has published guidelines on managing these risks. The Humanity United staff was also cognisant of diffusing power dynamics — they didn’t want the committee to feel as though they needed to make choices because they believed it was what the organization’s staff members would have wanted. “We’ve tried to do a lot of question-asking as a means to kind of guide. But I think we’ve tried our best to not be the ones holding the pen because that defeats the purpose of trying to do it this way,” Simhan said. When they gathered in Nairobi in April for four days, the committee allocated $600,000 to 19 organizations. At the beginning of the Nairobi meetings, Humanity United told the committee members that their own organizations would also receive funding. In future years, this amount could rise to just under $2 million distributed through this process, Simhan said. What the organizations decide to do with the money depends on them, a committee member told Devex. But Humanity United and the committee can help guide them. Some of the committee’s priorities include ensuring accountability for recruiters and employers around labor laws, influencing policy in home and host countries, ensuring freedom of expression, and that the workers are in the position to tell their own stories. All of this is to make sure they have dignified and respectful jobs. ‘Work ourselves out of a job’ “I think philanthropy talks a lot about how we need to work ourselves out of a job, but then we don’t actually put the things into place to work ourselves out of a job,” Simhan said. “I think there’s still a disconnect sometimes between what we say and what we do.” Humanity United’s funding strategies are typically written by the philanthropy’s staff, who may consult with individuals who can speak for those on the receiving end of funding — incorporating their perspectives into the strategy. Their strategies have also typically been hyperspecific. For example, looking at a system of exploitation in one country and working on policy change in areas such as improved recruitment laws. But the strategy the steering committee has crafted is different. “What they’ve done is they’ve created a broader framework,” Simhan said. One struggle philanthropies may run into when exploring moving toward participatory grantmaking, particularly if they’re highly bureaucratic, is a “byzantine structure” required for approval, he said, adding that it’s helped that his organization is relatively small, which has given them the flexibility to experiment. Or, if there’s a living donor, they may want to dictate how resources are allocated. But that hasn’t been a challenge for Humanity United — the Omidyar family has been “incredibly supportive” and trusting in how the organization’s staff shepherds resources, Simhan said. It’s also a time-consuming, resource-intensive process. Reflecting on their experiences thus far, Simhan said they spent about nine months getting internal approvals to move forward with these efforts but that could have been condensed. “I think there’s always a tendency to move towards perfectionism before you kind of are willing to move forward,” he said. “Don’t be afraid to have it be a bit messy.” And while many donors talk about how the participatory process requires a lot of upskilling of the people writing the strategy, the organization’s staff also requires upskilling, Simhan said. “We were learning as we went along with them,” he said. But the verdict is still out on the effectiveness of this approach versus traditional methods. “While there is a belief in the potential of participatory grantmaking to democratise philanthropy and transform power, the current evidence base needs to be strengthened to bolster such claims about its effectiveness,” the organization Porticus wrote in a report published on Monday. Initial evidence strongly demonstrates “the multifaceted impacts of participation, such as improved service delivery, policy responsiveness, and community power,” they wrote. And case studies highlight the “transformative potential” in areas such as shifting power dynamics, increased community ownership, and more equitable resource distribution. But there is a need for “more rigorous, longitudinal, and independently validated research on participation’s effectiveness,” according to the report.