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Over the last 5 years, the PGM Community of Practice has seen a growing interest in participatory grantmaking and identified an important role in supporting new practitioners in the space to get off on the right foot. In June 2024, the PGM Community introduced a learning program, the Start Well Program, created for people who are just starting out on their PGM journey between 1–3 years.
For 6 months, 18 participants from around the world and working across various thematic issues engaged in deep learning workshops, reflective sharing, personalised coaching and peer exchanges on participatory grantmaking. With the facilitation of our team of faculty members, the Start Well programme is designed to be an evolving programme within the PGM Community of Practice, dedicated to fostering deeper connections, continuous learning, and collective action with a community of PGM practitioners and those curious about PGM.
Start Well Program aims to:
What the first program cohort covered;
Participants were introduced to one another in a relationship building process that reflects people’s different journeys. The programme workshops covered PGM evolution, history and essentials, PGM models and best practices, PGM Monitoring, Learning and Evaluation. In addition to these indepth learning workshops, participants were entitled to peer to peer learning sessions that opened space for participants to learn from each other and informal debrief sessions that made it easier to share and reflect on workshop topics. As a form of ensuring personalised learning, participants were also paired with the facilitators of their choice from the faculty team for two in-depth coaching sessions that unpacked individual questions and provided space for open discussion.
A recurring theme throughout the cohort was the necessity of genuine power-sharing in participatory grantmaking. In many philanthropic circles, community participation is invited but rarely holds real decision-making authority. This practice can easily become performative if funders retain control over resource allocation and outcome definitions. True participatory grantmaking requires more than consultation; it demands the courage to let go of rigid structures, bureaucratic requirements, and preconceived notions about community needs.
More themes explored included;
The Start Well peer to peer sessions offered participants the space needed to engage with one another, learn from their lived experiences and exchange strategies in strengthening their PGM practices. We’ve already started to read some amazing reflections from the participants and over the course of the next weeks we will be sharing more reflections on our platforms.
What’s next for the Start Well program?
As the Start Well program continues to evolve, future cohorts will expand the network of funders, community organisers, and advocates engaged in this transformative work. If philanthropy is to genuinely shift power, funders must commit to deep, long-term investment in learning and connecting with other partners practising participatory grantmaking.
Join us as we continue to challenge traditional paradigms and build a more equitable and participatory philanthropic future together. We will be sharing the next Start Well Cohort plans and details soon, stay connected for updates!