What one foundation found when it listened to its grantees

The Mighty Arrow Family Foundation is a small family foundation based in the United States. In recent years, the foundation has worked hard to understand its grantees and shape itself around their needs. Jordana Barrack, executive director of the foundation, recently spoke to Devex about how the process changed her foundation for the better, and the lessons that other funders can learn. She said that the foundation engaged in depth with more than 60 of its 90 grantees — and changed its programs and grant structure as a result. Trust-based giving From the start, the foundation was rooted in the trust-based movement, Barrack said. Trust-based giving, famously popularized by MacKenzie Scott, philanthropist and ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is based on the idea that you should identify the nonprofit doing the best work, and then trust them to deliver. It involves offering unrestricted or core funding, with limited reporting requirements, over a long period of time. The Mighty Arrow Foundation has traditionally followed these principles. Barrack said that the foundation typically uses three-year funding cycles, and that the conversations at the end of each year are not focused on whether the grantee has hit targets, but on what they need. “We don’t have to have the type of conversation where our partners are trying to impress a funder in order to qualify for the next year of funding,” she said. “We can have really hard conversations. We could say, ‘What are you really wrestling with?’ And that led us into deeper relationships with these people.” Another decision taken right from the start: Mighty Arrow is a sunsetting foundation, meaning it will spend down its funding within the founder’s lifetime. This was a personal decision taken by the founder right at the start, Barrack said. “I am seeing more and more foundations talk about sunsetting, and I think every foundation that’s doing so has some individual philosophy that's feeding that,” she said. “I don’t think it’s one size fits all for that strategy.” Staff care Staff care is a core area where The Mighty Arrow Family Foundation has focused its work. Barrack said that when she conducted a survey of grantees, a very high percentage was struggling with burnout. This led the foundation to launch initiatives to bring grantees together for peer support. “We started doing community wellness calls on a quarterly basis,” Barrack said. “We’re lining up keynote speakers to come and speak about different wellness subjects that our partners can sign up as a webinar and tap into and be in conversation together.” The foundation also launched two new grant programs as a result of what it found — one being a nurturing leadership grant for existing partners, which is specifically designed to encourage organizations to look after staff well-being. “We offer general operating funds, and oftentimes, that is the type of fund that an organization could say, ‘You know what? We just need to have a team retreat. We just need to do something fun together,’” Barrack said. “But they still don’t use those funds to take care of people as much. And so we’re trying to figure out what kind of language do you have to give with a grant check in order to empower an organization to feel like they can spend it on taking care of their people.” Referral programs The other grant that Mighty Arrow launched is about gatekeeping. “For many nonprofits, getting an intro, getting a foot in the door, an email across the threshold to a new funder, is challenging, because so many, especially family foundations, they don't necessarily have the staff bandwidth to have an open application process, and so it tends to be invite only,” Barrack said. “We are also an invite-only foundation, and we acknowledge that as gatekeeping. And so we are trying to figure out, with our own limited capacity, how do we start to slowly crack open those doors? We said, ‘Well, what about if our existing partners got to refer other nonprofits to us?’ And so we started that referral program.” “That has been the most fascinating thing to learn from, because to see the other types of organizations that our partners want to recommend to us, that we fund, I never would have thought of,” she added. Final lessons The Mighty Arrow Family Foundation’s story underscores a broader point for philanthropy: that genuine listening can upend assumptions, rewire relationships, and make funding more effective. For Barrack, the payoff is clear. “When you trust grantees, they deliver more than you could have imagined,” she said. “Our role is to get out of the way — and support them in doing what they do best.” Don't miss out on future briefings. Browse our events calendar for our next live conversations.