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Flipping the Script of Philanthropy: Putting Power AND Money into Community Hands 

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As we celebrate 40 years of Headwaters, we have been offering reflections on the ways we and others can challenge the movement of money. If you missed it, check out our first installment, where Mary Delorié reflects on how Headwaters practices “donor organizing”.

By Bilal Alkatout, Interim Executive Director

Headwaters Foundation for Justice (HFJ) was established to do philanthropy differently. Just like every revolutionary movement, the boldest ideas begin with action. We didn’t just set out to think differently—we set out to do differently. The field of philanthropy is grounded in a charity model that drives slow, small-scale progress, but not a liberatory uprooting of our existing systems. Rather than feeding into the nonprofit industrial complex without moving the needle, our founders created HFJ to build and shift social change.

As a result, HFJ demands that historically oppressed and under-resourced communities organizing for justice are at the heart of our funding. As we fund organizations who are unapologetic in their fight for liberation, we are called to be just as bold in organizing our philanthropic peers towards a new way of funding. The values of building with and influencing our peers — or “philanthropic organizing” — to create the just society we dream of has stuck with our organization for the past forty years.  


Philanthropy is lagging and the numbers prove it 

Our work isn’t radical, it is rational. We know that support of Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC), queer, and trans led work is lacking across the board in philanthropic funding. We know this not only in our gut and from our experiences working in the sector but also because BIPOC, queer and trans communities are often asked to prove it, and they have.  

Our friends at the Minnesota Black Collective Foundation partnered with the Center for Evaluation Innovation to conduct a research project that found less than 4% of funding focused on racial equity work in Minnesota between 2018–2019, and only about 0.5% was focused on racial justice. Similarly, Native Americans in Philanthropy research found that 0.4% of national philanthropic dollars were granted to work that explicitly benefited Native Americans between 2002-2016. According to Funders for LGBTQ Issues and Minnesota Council on Foundations reports, less than 0.25% of all granting in MN was directed toward LGBTQ issues in 2022. 


Power sharing yields power building 

So, we organize. In addition to mobilizing our individual donors, we partner with large philanthropic funders as an intermediary to put money back into the hands of community decision-makers. We shift the philanthropic power of deciding what communities needs by empowering community grantmakers to make the funding decisions that build power in their communities. That means that where the vast majority of our grants go is determined by our community grant makers – not our staff. Community-led grantmaking has anchored HFJ’s granting philosophy for decades and had a ripple effect out to other foundations’ grantmaking processes.    

Community-led grantmaking is also crucial because we know that no community is a monolith. Democratizing decision-making is part of creating the future we want—one where diverse voices are heard, valued, and empowered to shape the outcomes that affect their lives. By placing trust in the hands of the community and providing organizations with the flexibility of general operating funding, we support a future where solutions are driven by those who truly understand their unique challenges and strengths. This approach not only honors the complexity of each community but also fosters resilience, equity, and innovation in the pursuit of justice.  


Together we go further 

HFJ stands out in our solidarity approach, and our philanthropic peers often ask us how we built trust with our community partners. We are an intersectional and multiracial organization that represents our community. We recognize that we may not perfectly represent our community, but we are committed to building an institution that genuinely reflects our values of inclusivity and solidarity.  

We’ve developed policies that promote a culture where our staff can show up as their full selves. Our shared decision-making processes empower staff at all levels, ensuring that leadership and power are distributed, not centralized. To sustain and care for our team, we’ve implemented a four-day workweek and offer sabbaticals to prioritize rest and well-being. Together, we co-created our employee handbook, which serves as a living accountability guide, grounding us in our collective responsibilities to the organization and each other. Without that well-functioning core, our work would not properly reflect and prioritize the perspectives of our community partners. The trust building we do as staff parallels what we see and hear from community partners and organizers. 


We put our money where our mouth is 

We also demonstrate solidarity through our funding priorities. In the fall of 2023, HFJ granted $1.4M to BIPOC-led organizations actively working towards strengthening the ecosystem of social justice movements in Minnesota. In the spring of 2024, HFJ distributed a historic $1M to Native-led organizations through our Fund of the Sacred Circle and aim to grant at least $1M to Black-led movement building in Minnesota in spring 2025, among other initiatives centering gender justice and democracy building.  

HFJ has bloomed into an organization with an impact our founders can be proud of. And like us, we know they would still demand more. On the horizon, HFJ will continue its work to build the robust social justice ecosystem we deserve in Minnesota. We are eager to organize identity-based and justice-serving community foundations locally and nationally to raise awareness and coordinate resources to movement builders. HFJ has been a crucial tool in our social justice ecosystem over the past 40 years and I am eager to see it evolve in the years to come.  


40 Calls to Action for 40 Years of Headwaters

As we celebrate 40 years of Headwaters, we are sharing with you all the ins and outs of how we do our work – in the past and present. We’d also like to invite you to take action in your own way. With each blog, we will be sharing a list of “calls to action” that are actionable for you whether you are new to our work, someone working in philanthropy, a passive scroller, or someone who knows our work even better than we know ourselves! We invite you to consider the following actions:   


Next steps for someone working in philanthropy: 

  • How does trust show up in your organization? Trust-Based Philanthropy’s self-reflection tool breaks it down so you can see where your current practices land – whether you’re new to this work or have been at it for a while! 
  • As you expand and advocate for trust-based philanthropy, having a space for shared tools, ideas, and questions can be helpful. Connect with your peers through the Trust-Based Philanthropy Peer Exchange. 
  • And of course, we want to work with you! Funders, institutions, and interested partners can reach out to our Interim Executive Director, Bilal Alkatout, at bilal@headwatersfoundation.org 

Challenging norms – for everyone: 

  • Ever dealt with a challenging funding process? Crappy Funding Practices is informative for funders and cathartically entertaining for anyone who has had to navigate an unnecessarily difficult grant application! (You can also report your own experiences here.) 
  • Our way of challenging who is and isn’t invited into grantmaking decisions is through our intentionally cross-class, multi-racial, and multi-generational cohort of the Giving Project. Learn more and keep an eye out for ways to support the 2024-25 cohort in their grantmaking journey! 

Watch, read, and dig into the data: