Learning Cultures Are Built on Trust

Successfully learning from a grant report requires carefully cultivating strong external relationships based on trust. Whether these relationships are with applicants, grant recipients, intermediaries, or community members, the networks and relationships that organizations develop can often bear fruit in sometimes unexpected ways. For example, relationships with community members can help a grantmaker stay grounded in the issues facing that community, get different viewpoints, maintain an understanding of what the best solutions might be, and understand the impact of those solutions. Creating the conditions for honest and thoughtful dialogue allows a grantmaker to partner with other stakeholders on an emergent learning journey and better understand the impact of their grantmaking. Here are a few tips that may help to accomplish this. Be transparent about your own learning journey. As Paloma Raggo noted in her research on accountability, “When you hold power, what you decide depends on what you believe you are