Deepening the Practice: Learning, Unlearning, and Reimagining Participatory Grantmaking

As the Participatory Grantmaking (PGM) field continues to evolve, so do the questions and commitments of those who practice it. In 2024, we launched the Deepening Practice Cohort- a space for PGM practitioners and community leaders who have many years of practical experience and are eager to push its boundaries. This was a space intended for those wrestling with what it means to stay committed to PGM, justice-rooted resourcing, and care as practice, especially when it’s hard.

Across a series of virtual gatherings, this global cohort of practitioners came together to reflect on their own PGM journeys, offer peer learning, and explore new possibilities for their organizations, communities, and the wider funding ecosystem. Together, we named tensions, shared tools, and dreamt collectively about the future of participatory philanthropy.

What Brought Us Here

In our pre-cohort assessment, participants shared a desire for something deeper than guidance documents or one-off training. They hoped this space would offer real examples of how others were grappling with participatory grantmaking in complex contexts. Creative tools to support facilitation and decision-making. Community and solidarity across borders. And a space for reimagination and collective strategizing.

The cohort surfaced recurring tensions: the difficulty of shifting money and power when institutions resist; the complexities of inclusion and accessibility; the exhaustion that comes with holding community and institutional demands at once. Rather than seeing these as barriers, participants named them as entry points for learning and transformation.

What We are Learning

From our first sessions, participants were honest about the frictions they’re navigating:

Power and process: How do we build models where community members can truly make decisions across borders, languages, and political realities?
Burnout and care: What does it take to sustain participatory work without exhausting the very people it aims to center?
Funders and fear: How do we bring institutions along especially, Boards and senior leadership, without diluting the political nature of PGM?
Narrative and trust: How do we tell better stories, the ones that protect communities, resist co-optation, and move money?

These questions anchored our virtual sessions. But they didn’t just sit as questions. They sparked creative responses, experiments, and generous resource sharing across the cohort.

Tools and Tactics from the Cohort

Here are just a few of the strategies and provocations that emerged from our calls:

Board Engagement: Use engaging, short and powerful presentations by community leaders, to bring lived experience to the strategy table.
Narrative Strategy: Partner with narrative and communications experts to craft compelling stories that don’t water down the politics of PGM.
Recruitment and Onboarding: Treat onboarding with as much care as recruitment. Build processes that see participants as full people, not just seat-fillers.
Multi-year Participation Models: Build in time for growth, learning, and exit. Consider role sequencing, term limits, and layered involvement structures.
Transparent PGM Design: Be open about what’s possible within your institutional context. Participation doesn’t need to be perfect, rather to be honest and transformative.

What We’re Dreaming

In our final session, we zoomed out. Where do we want to be in 10 years? What would it look like for participatory grantmaking to not just exist but to transform how resourcing, decision-making, and power work globally?

We imagined:

Communities resourcing each other and redistributing wealth without institutional gatekeeping.
Funders that view PGM not as a pilot, but as core to how they function, baked into strategy, governance, and evaluation.
Narrative work that shifts public imagination towards care, equity, and collective power.
Cross-border solidarities that defy the idea that PGM is only possible for a few regions/contexts.
The end of philanthropy as we know it- not as collapse, but as transformation. What happens when our goal is to work ourselves out of a job?

What’s Next

The Deepening Practice Cohort has ended, but the work continues. Many participants are taking these conversations back to their organizations, experimenting with new formats, and mentoring others. Cohort participants committed to continuing this work on “strategizing for the future of PGM” and we can’t wait to see the ripple effects of this work.

The practitioners shared that it was sometimes hard to get into deeper conversations with the time allotted. As a practitioner reflected “we were just getting started when we wrapped up after 4 sessions.” We’ll be exploring how to expand the Deepening Practice cohort while integrating the feedback we received.

If you’re curious about participatory grantmaking- or ready to take your practice deeper- you’re not alone. We’re always learning together!

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