The Power of Us: Inside the Community-Led Grantmaking Experiment

What happens when grantmaking power is placed directly in the hands of the community?

SPOILER ALERT: Amazing things.

In this episode, we pull back the curtain on how the Tzedek Social Justice Fund flips the script on philanthropy-as-usual by placing community at the center of decision-making. Tera Coffey, Tzedek's Director of Community-Led Grantmaking, shares her reflections alongside members of the 2024-2025 CLG Committee (CLGC), who bring their stories, struggles, and discoveries to the mix.

Together, they reveal how shifting decision-making to often-overlooked communities builds trust, sparks transformation, and moves both money and power in tangible ways.

Curious what’s possible when philanthropy follows community's lead? Tune in.

We'll see you same time, same place next month. Until then, peace.

Transcript

Welcome & Intro

SPEAKER_00 0:03

We're profoundly, profoundly interconnected. We don't always live that way, we don't always acknowledge it. But if we're going to heal, we have to live it, experience it, and create institutions that celebrate it. Can we create a we where no one's on the outside of it?

The Vision

SPEAKER_07 0:20

Welcome to the Uplift with Zedek, real talk for real change. Before we jump in, a quick reminder of why we're here and what we hope to achieve. We're here to build authentic community relationships and help fuel social transformation in Nashville, North Carolina. We believe collective liberation is not only possible but probable as we share, listen, and learn together. We're here for the process. However, the views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent. Welcome back to the Uplift. I'm your host, Michael Hoban, the Director of Communications for the ZedX Social Justice Fund, and today we're taking you inside an experiment in community power. Imagine this: instead of a foundation making decisions behind closed doors, what if community members had the resources and the responsibility to decide where the money goes? That's exactly what's happening with ZedX Community-led Grantmaking Committee. Over the course of several months, a group of five members from diverse communities came together to wrestle with significant questions. How do you represent an entire community? How do you build trust across cultures? How do you leverage grantmaking as a tool for social change? What unfolded was raw, inspiring, and deeply human. Honest conversations, cultural learning, moments of struggle, and breakthroughs in trusts. And we're here to talk about it. You'll hear directly from committee members in their own words, as well as from Tara Coffey, who's that's the director of community-led grantmaking, about what it took to hold space for such a powerful process and what it means for the future of philanthropy. Tara, when this committee first came together, what was the vision you were holding? What did you hope people would experience in this process?

SPEAKER_09 1:52

Ooh, I really wanted the community-led grantmaking committee, I call them CLGC. You know, I I frankly, I wanted them to kind of be friends. Like I wanted them to be friendly community members, if not friends, who felt like neighbors, like true neighbors, who then actually got all of the power that as a foundation we hold all the time. Right? We get to decide what we do with our money. We have a nice little pocket of money. It's not the most money in the region, but we definitely have some money. And we can make whatever decisions we want with that money. We have some basic parameters from the IRS, but we largely get to determine where we want that money to go. And I wanted our committee to get to experience knowing what issues you face every day or knowing what issues that really affect the people that you love and the people that you are around every day. And then be given the power to say, okay, so what do you want to do about it? And then after what do you want to do about it? Who do you want to give dollars to to make that happen? That's so, so powerful. And I really just wanted our community and people who are not always necessarily raised up as the leader of a movement, right? Or the thing in our community, everyday people. I wanted them to experience what it's like to have that power. Not just that power, but that control in your life over something like that.

Rethinking Selection: Found, Not Applied

SPEAKER_07 3:15

Huge. It's huge. As you know, I recently sat down with the committee to collect feedback on the experience so far, and we heard right away from committee members that this process felt different. They talked about honesty, openness, leaving meetings, feeling recharged. Can you share a little bit more about how these members were selected and why you chose this approach?

SPEAKER_09 3:33

Yes. So the selection was one kind of a necessity, but it also worked out really well. After the last committee that we did community like grantmaking with, we took an approach instead where we didn't have an open application process and a call for applications, and people then basically submitted resumes and were like, I'm a good community leader because of XYZ, right? And you know, we didn't select only community leaders in the last process. We had a really good representation of folks, but it was still something where you had to kind of believe in yourself enough to apply.

SPEAKER_06 4:04

Right. Right?

SPEAKER_09 4:04

Like you had to think you were like deserving enough of this thing or that you were somebody who had some level of knowledge that was worthwhile to be able to make these decisions. That could be a huge barrier. It can be a huge barrier because truly, if you're really just trying to get folks who are experiencing challenges of oppression based in our focal areas, racial justice, LGBT, Q justice, and dismantling anti-Semitism, um, that's not necessarily the first thing that they're worried about, right? Like that's not the first thing on their mind. And so the question then became okay, how do we get folks, instead of having them apply, how do we find them? How do we get to them? We're a foundation. So we don't necessarily do that kind of work. We give money to organizations who work with just regular people who are in our focal areas. And so what became apparent was it needed to be a little bit of a collaborative kind of partnership where we went to some of our different organizations who we either fund or who we just have a relationship with. We actually asked some folks who we don't fund, but who are like, hey, you guys do work, really good work. And it's work that involves the community directly and it's within our focal areas. Do you know anybody who would want to do the work of the committee and who holds an identity in one of our focal areas? It was really important that we had people who could talk to the actual experiences, their lived experiences of what it's like to experience hardship and oppression within one of our focal areas. So when we reached out to a host of different groups, they were really excited about it. You know, they took some time and they came back and we're like, well, here's a little list of people who we think would be great. Here's their contact information. And so then it just became a series of coffee dates, kind of just talk about what the process is. What do you have going on in your life? Do you have time to do this? Would you be interested in doing this? This is what it would look like. From there, we just had a core group of five people emerge. Yeah, that's how we arrived at our core five.

SPEAKER_07 5:50

It's pretty cool because they came in based on their feedback with a vote of confidence from their community.

SPEAKER_09 5:56

Yeah. And so it's somebody who is involved in their community and is known as caring about their community, but who isn't necessarily the person who's put up as a leader all the time. Yeah.

Voices From The Committee: On Selection

SPEAKER_07 6:07

Yeah. Here's what they had to share.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

The selection process. I feel like that worked really well because it wasn't, we didn't apply to it, it found us, because people in our community literally said, This person does all of this work, is so clued in, whatever, you should reach out to them and see if they're interested.

SPEAKER_06 6:26

I did wonder about our qualifications, like because I didn't know how you all were picked. And so it it actually, like in the beginning, felt like I don't really know who you all are, and I don't know how you are in your communities. And like you told us that. Well, so there you go.

SPEAKER_05 6:39

You did not hide that you were feeling that absolutely. Well, there you go.

SPEAKER_06 6:42

I'm consistent.

SPEAKER_03 6:43

Honestly, by me being a part of my community and living in these communities, I'm like a very outspoken person, and I'm out, and I felt like my voice was never being heard. And so for me to be in a situation in the position that I am right now, it really feels good to be able to advocate, you know, and support these communities through this foundation.

SPEAKER_04 7:02

All of our passions are like in this work. It's our baby. Our identity is our baby. Being able to say, hey, this is our identity, and these are the people that I represent and that represent me as well, and I can speak for us.

The Conditions

SPEAKER_07 7:17

Okay, so you nailed selection, but what about cohesion? What conditions made it possible for people to show up so honestly and authentically in this space?

Voices From The Committee: On Selection

SPEAKER_09 7:25

Really early on, really early on, I took some feedback from our last iteration of the CLGC. And I think in that previous time, things were a little bit more um, we're meeting, we're a committee, the committee meets, and we kind of have our discussion, and then you leave. And that's great, but it that's not gonna give that neighborly feeling. That's not gonna make you feel like we are doing this for ourselves, for our community, for each other. When we look at our focal areas and we look at our larger system of the dominant culture in this, in our society of white supremacy and control, the biggest thing that's needed is solidarity, especially within our focal groups. People need to work together collaboratively to achieve the changes that they want to see, right? Then that's just on a base level. That's just like a collectivizing reality. But that's not possible if you don't know each other and you don't trust each other. If you're gonna fund something like that, you should be in some way experiencing something like that. And so when I came up with how we would come into space just day one, how are we gonna be in relationship with each other? That was actually a huge chunk of how the entire process was conceived and how we would facilitate uh the entire, the entire process across the two years. Everything was going to feel relational, not specifically necessarily always with me as facilitator or with Zedek as funder, but with the group. It was like really important that they felt like true friends and neighbors.

SPEAKER_04 8:53

We lucked up getting picked to be together in this group because I think this was a very powerful group. Every time I left, I was like, I said what I had to say, and like that was it. It was good and it was received and it was heard and it was seen. And so I think all of our willingness to even put ourselves on the line to represent our communities in the forefront of it all was like impeccable. I think just the honest conversations, like genuine, honest conversations, and not having to feel like we have to hold back or like sugarcoat the way we feel and how we represent our communities.

SPEAKER_01 9:30

Yeah, I agree. Even on the days where we would meet and have really heavy conversations, really heavy things to work through, like when we were doing those trainings. I feel like I always left the meetings feeling so full and like fulfilled and excited, even to be like recharged, yes, to like be having those real connections and in like an authentic way that was not you just don't have to hold back or you don't have to be worried about not knowing or maybe you know, not saying the right thing or something like that. There's just a lot of grace and a lot of genuine connection that has been so inspiring.

SPEAKER_03 10:12

And also a bit from experience just being around a group of people who actually is passionate and who really cares. You know, um, that means a lot. I want to say to all of us, because we all been very honest with each other and you know, we didn't look at each other no different type of a way. I just appreciate the fact that I'm definitely working with a group of people who's passionate and who really cares about the communities.

SPEAKER_08 10:31

Yeah, for me, the support that we have, um, you know, each other is beautiful. And representing um each of the communities, also everyone is the voice of the community.

SPEAKER_09 10:42

When you can be friends and neighbors with one another, when your friend and neighbor is advocating for their community and talking about the things that they experience in their lived experience and the things that are happening to their other neighbors and their other community members, right? You feel that on a much deeper level. And so you're able to say, I'm not just here representing my community and our needs. I see them as one community and all of our needs. For now, where we're at now, having received a bunch of applications and the community is going through them, looking at what is the thing that's going to serve us as a whole, our community, this community of neighbors.

SPEAKER_07 11:18

And that us and getting to that us is more than just proximity.

SPEAKER_09 11:22

Yes.

Cross-Cultural Learning

SPEAKER_07 11:23

And that's based off of their sharings, right? They talked a lot about the cross-cultural learning and how that shaped their understanding of each other and the interconnectedness. What surprised you about that?

SPEAKER_09 11:34

A lot surprised me, but I don't even know if I can put it into words. When I was kind of outline of how I wanted to introduce our focal areas and how I wanted to introduce the concept of philanthropy and this idea of redistributing wealth and what that means and what that has meant in this country. I wanted to be really clear that all of these things, these identities that we hold, the idea of philanthropy, what it means to have power and be able to then wield that power. There's a narrative that says that they can't really be changed. This is how things are. And then that that narrative can be challenged. And so I was surprised that that was actually that resonated, even that idea resonated so deeply with our committee so quickly. I thought it was something that was maybe a little too, you know, I was being a little too academic. I've definitely been accused of that in the past.

SPEAKER_07 12:26

She got footnotes.

SPEAKER_09 12:28

You know, I didn't want to bog them down with just super uh academic perspectives of power and uh this idea of power redistribution. But I wanted to make really clear that in whatever we looked at, as far as our focal areas are concerned and being introduced to them, that at the core, you may hold an identity in one sphere, you may hold multiple identities across spheres, but all of them are a part of a larger system, that interconnected piece. And if we were to work from a place of solidarity with each other, we would be able to make the changes we truly want to see. That's the part that the committee really, I think, really quickly kind of clamped onto was this idea of solidarity and moving together. Couldn't have been more pleased. It was shocked. But it was shocking that it was so fast. It was so fast. They got it. They, they, it was like they got the information and were like, oh, bet we've been being kept separated and it's time to get together. One of our committee members, Toshia, actually offered a question that I ended up using for visioning later on in the process. And it was so profound when she asked it, she was so, she really meant it. She really meant it in her life. I remember that moment, actually. Yeah. And it was, you know, after we're talking about all these, um, all of our focal areas, we're talking about these videos, these trainings that you and I put together, she said, you know, what would it just make you really think, you know, you just really wonder like, what would be possible if we all came together? I was like, exactly. Like that's actually exactly it. That is exactly it. What would be possible if we all actually just came together? If we focused on what the needs of our community and how much we actually are in relationship with each other and how much we care for each other, then what could we do? I was truly deeply shocked at how quickly it was really fast. Yeah, it resonated.

SPEAKER_07 14:18

In philanthropy, we talk about collective liberation and it sounds like a buzzword, but truly, almost overnight, it was like, yeah, we get it.

SPEAKER_09 14:25

Yeah. You know, honestly, I can't sleep on those videos, actually. And I was shocked. Wild how impactful they've been. And there's like a little piece in the middle. There's the relationship building that we did. We gave space in the beginning for the committee to introduce themselves, how they wanted to be introduced into the space. So, not like something that's based off of a resume, but something that's like, this is who I am, this is what I love about my community. This is what I kind of want other people to understand about me that they may not see all the time, right? We had these different prompts, we did these activities. That gave an opportunity for people to kind of stand in the space as who they are. The videos gave us an opportunity to say, this is all the things that I bring with me. We also took a lot of time to create a space where we can ask questions of each other, but also just of me as a neutral facilitator who's kind of giving this information. So you didn't have to like justify your identity or something that's happening, right? Like the facilitator is explaining things. You're welcome to chime in, right? It's your identity we're talking about after all. People were allowed to have that space to ask questions without it being something that you're vilified for or that's a problem or whatever. That was possible because we created, we spent a lot of time creating agreements. The way that we introduce them is something that I've used again and again as I facilitate more and more, which is a question of what do you need to be able to be your full self in the space. We spent a long time coming up with how they wanted to be in space together. And I think the process of doing that actually, more so than even the agreements themselves, created the opportunity for everybody to really see from each other like, what is it that maybe this person's feeling nervous about being here? So I think having those pieces together gave a lot of space for being able to learn and still then be accepted and embraced by the other committee members, by their neighbors.

SPEAKER_07 16:12

Yeah, it's really humanizing. You created a space where there was vulnerability as well as openness and belonging. Oh no, I I mean I watched it and it was beautiful to watch, but also they felt that and they share that.

Voices From The Committee: On Learning Together

SPEAKER_03 16:24

I like the fact that we all was able to talk about each other's culture, to understand like each other's culture to, you know, to make our decision.

SPEAKER_06 16:31

And I think that in the beginning, I mean, I've loved getting to know you all better. That's been like such a big coup. But um I do remember the moment when we were doing like the historical studies about the three forms of oppression that the impacted communities for set at. And I particularly remember you because you said like, I had no idea that Jews had anything going on. Like, and and it was it was really it felt really um like I was being seen in a way that I hadn't been seen before. And I also felt that way with the other things that we studied. And I learned some things about LGDBQ and you know, racial justice. And so it was just nice to have a common understanding where we all knew that we that that we shared that together and we had we had that experience together and our communities did too. That was really meaningful for me.

SPEAKER_03 17:18

Be all like down thought that we basically going through the same thing.

SPEAKER_04 17:22

I think out loud it's been difficult because you feel like you're not doing enough when you're like in the work, it's kind of like imposter syndrome. For me personally, I'm very like selfish when it comes to my community. And so, like when I came into this work, I was like, I'm sorry, but y'all are not gonna relate to what's going on in black community. Like, that's just what it is. And I think having that out-of-body experience and like really diving into the Latina ex community, Jewish community, LTBGQ community, and really seeing all of the issues. I had to really like kind of deconstruct myself and my biases and really be like, it's not just me. It's not just my community. Like, we get pulled over, they get pulled over too, and they still gonna be looking at us like you're in the wrong, either way, no matter what it is. So I think that was very like eye-opening for myself to really like take a step back and really look like it's not just the black community that's in trouble right now. Like, we are all fighting something, whatever it may be.

SPEAKER_03 18:33

To piggyback on what's an honest, that's exactly how I feel. Just thinking it was just us. It's just us. You don't have an idea of what we go through. You know, but just hearing everybody's stories, it like it just really opened up my horizons to looking like we are literally going through the same thing, you know? And so you gotta get out that bias mode and that judgmental mode, you know, without even knowing or understanding what someone else is going through.

SPEAKER_01 18:56

I think it's also, I mean, it's more than just bias, though. I feel like it literally is survival mode, which is a, I think, a huge part of why we got to where we got before we even started our research, was because we all can relate to that feeling, right? We all can relate to your day-to-day, the struggles in your life, the trauma you've been through. It feels like the biggest thing in the world because it is the biggest thing in your world. And your world is what you have to navigate each day, and you have no space for anything else or anyone else. It's a brick wall.

SPEAKER_06 19:31

And and I think that really what also contributed to it was we did take a long time to sort of build trust. Like I felt by the time we got into like performing mode, I felt like I knew, you know, like we'd had a chance to get to know each other and trust each other.

SPEAKER_08 19:42

Yeah, and also the respect, the empathy, um, you know, just listen the other person and what what they're feeling, what they're thinking. That helps us a lot.

SPEAKER_07 19:54

All right, let's talk a little bit about participatory action research. What is it and why do it?

SPEAKER_09 20:02

Um, participatory action research, at the core of it, it's a couple of things. It's community members, people who are affected by the challenges that they face in their communities in our society are the ones who are put in charge of then determining what the issue is that they want to seek a solution for. They determine the questions that they want to ask to seek a solution. They are given the space to then speak to their neighbors and ask these questions. They come back and analyze that information together. Then from there, they create an action plan that you build on in the future, right? So you say, like, this is kind of the solution that we're seeking, and this is what this will look like. And then you implement it. And then from that implementation, you say, okay, so what did we learn? What's the next step? And with our process, it's a little tricky because this is a one-year grant. So that part where, okay, we look at it, did we hit it? What can we change? Isn't going to be done by the same committee. So it's really important that that action plan that they build is like a living, breathing document that future community members look at and they say, okay, this is how this money was spent in this way. Did it get to the overarching goal? The overarching goal, whatever they plan, will be how future committees build, informs maybe what they fund and the direction they go in. Ideally, you would have multi-year funding for that. You know, you don't make big changes in the community uh that often within a year. The the dreams and vision for change that this committee came up with aren't necessarily things that can happen in a year, but with a a strong plan and based off of the research that they conducted and the feedback they had from their communities, they absolutely can create to a path forward that can then be built on. So having that opportunity to iterate, to try something, and then ask the community, did it work? Participatory action research gives you all that space, but also allows you to put the power of conducting research into the community members' hands who are experiencing the challenge. So it's not a bunch of experts descending on a space, it's community members acting as experts of their own lived experience and in their own community and finding solutions with their own community and getting to hold that space as both a researcher, as an expert, as somebody who is qualified and competent enough to actually do community work for themselves, which for the most part, we all really are.

Voices From The Committee: On Representation

SPEAKER_02 22:20

If we get the get the right tools.

SPEAKER_01 22:22

I think what I found to be hard was when we would fill up our research pot and then have to boil it down. It was like, what can we do? Because it feels so big and so overwhelming. And there's like a kind of like drowning dread that it's our job. Like that's the world. Yeah, kind of. But like, and then we're not really saving the world, but we're gonna try to like change it a little bit in our immediate circle. I feel like that was a really hard thing. Like Sanai said, with imposter syndrome, we have to constantly be checking our imposter syndrome to be like, oh no, no, we did do like the due diligence of trying to figure out what we could do, like the boiling down of all of our research, which was like well over one, two, three, four, five, it was like over 60 people's input. I think 75 actually. And how do we boil that down to one grant? And our initial research query that was about furthering democracy and getting folks out of the survival mode mindset, the overwhelmingly loud pieces of feedback from all of these people was we need joy and connection and we need resources and knowledge. We need resources and we need to know how to use the resources. We sat there and talked for over an hour of how can we put the money or power into the hands of people in our community to create something that is going to further our democracy and get rid of scarcity mindset. And that is by allowing for physical space to embrace joy, embrace connection. And hell yeah, that will help us get the communities together, right? And the resource hub being a space for not just resources, but like figuring out what your rights are and figuring out who your local leaders are. How do we make your voice heard in your community anyway?

SPEAKER_08 24:26

Oh, for me, the more difficult I think was when we start like I think that first first meeting. I don't know. I I I I think like I felt like like uh for another planet because my culture could be diff uh different, it's different. So um when I came to USA and I see that all the communities are separate, like for me was like I don't know, hitting with a with a wall. So understanding that was the most uh difficult part.

Representation Limits And Research Gaps

SPEAKER_06 24:55

So it was hard for me to represent my whole community. And I felt like even in the research, you know, I met a lot of people I didn't know. And even 10 people, I mean, I did 14 people, I think. And sometimes they said things that I was like, really, is that representative in our community? Like even with 14 people, I'm not downing our participatory research because I think that's the only way we can do it. I really tried to age diversity, economic diversity, gender diversity, even though I know that wasn't my thing, but we have that, you know, in all the communities. I felt a little bit like it was hard for me to represent the whole community. And then even in the participatory action research, I felt like I don't know that I've gotten everybody because I feel like there's a lot of viewpoints that I still didn't even have represented. Me, I'll speak for myself. It was a lot for me to hold like the whole Jewish community and think that I was gonna speak for them or that I even knew what they were thinking, or you know, because there's there's not one thing. And so even with the 14 people, I wondered, like I looked through it and I thought, did it skew one way? Did it skew another way? I picked people I didn't know, but I think they did skew one way, and there's other another part that might skew another way. And so it's hard, it's hard for me to be a representative. And then it was all equally hard with the participatory action research, I think, to find like, is this really representation of the Jewish community? I don't know. I could have talked to another 20 people and we would have maybe had different ideas. I appreciated the process that we did that, but I still wonder about like representing communities.

Independent Parallels: United Way Findings

SPEAKER_07 26:14

The approach here with the participatory action research is similar to work that's come out previously from United Way, which you were a part of, am I right?

SPEAKER_09 26:21

Yeah, in the community, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 26:23

And it was kind of exciting. You want to share a little bit why you see that as exciting, how that played out?

SPEAKER_09 26:29

So my role was varied with the United Way um work, but I wasn't a part of the what would be more of the participatory action research. I don't know if it would be fully a whole research project in that way. It was definitely community-led research though. And I joined at the second half, so it was like two separate processes that happened, right? Where this grant making happened and then a grant making revamp is what's happening. But they they came to incredibly similar conclusions. Um, went out and they talked to lots and lots and lots of community members about just the challenges that they face. And theirs were a little bit more honed in on uh more specific things. So they were looking more at the education system and the schools here in Nashville and Buncombe County. But what really struck me, I mean, I couldn't believe it when we, our committee, our Zedek committee, was looking at all the themes that emerge from all this individual, you know, they looked at every person's response, right? This raw data, these raw responses. They themed it out into like, this is like this, this is a similar issue, similar concern, similar idea, right? They put them all together in these different themes. And so from that, they were thinking, okay, what are solutions? And they did a little bit of research to see what solutions they might pull from other groups, all that kind of stuff. And when they said they wanted to do community events and community hubs, I was like, I think my mouth fell open. I don't remember.

SPEAKER_07 27:50

You're like, what?

SPEAKER_09 27:53

You know, because I saw the whole list of other things that they were looking at. You know, we were talking about all these other options. I think these are incredible solutions to the issues that they set out to solve. I think they speak really loudly based off of the feedback that they got from their community members, but I think it speaks doubly as loudly that only a few years prior, other community members went into the community and asked folks what issues they face and they themed data out in different ways. Their process was different than ours, and still they arrived at community events and com in a resource hub, right? Their resource hub was made more centered on parents because, again, they were doing it for uh families, right? It was for the school system. But they arrived at the same conclusion. And it was because, similarly to the CLGC, they wanted to build relationships with their neighbors, they wanted to be more in touch with their identities, they wanted space to connect with each other and access resources in a way that felt non-judgmental. You know, people talk a lot about access, but there's still so many hoops you have to go through sometimes just to even know, just to even know that it exists. That's something that across those two different processes, I remember resoundingly people being frustrated that it's not easier just to get information. Your neighbor might know this information, but you don't. And how come there's not space for you to talk to your neighbor about the information that they know? Why isn't it happening more organic? Yeah, right. Like it should be organic. It's just coming up because I talked to Michael and Michael knew about this thing, and he had talked to Sally last week. So then he connected me with Sally and I was like, oh, Sally, so-so told me about this. Look at us knowing in the community together because we're in space and because we have relationships.

SPEAKER_07 29:31

It's almost like laying the groundwork for a mutual aid infrastructure that just is naturally born out of relationships.

SPEAKER_09 29:38

Right, and we call it that now. But when people talk about the good old days and they talk about how, oh, well, my neighbor would blah, blah, blah, blah, and I could get this and we could just do this in the neighborhood. That is a mutual aid network. Yeah. Right. Like that's what that's a mutual aid network we call that now. And before that was just like the neighborhood. That was just like your community.

SPEAKER_07 29:53

That is what people are yearning for. For me, like my science mind is like, first of all, it works. Like you can't have community led research. That is actually hitting what you're looking for. And to hear the same results coming out of that was just a sign off of a guess this is this is the right direction to go. So funders, if you're listening, funders pour into it.

SPEAKER_09 30:13

You know, it was something that was tricky for our RFP. People were like, what do you mean, no government? Like, what no government? And I think that's like kind of exactly it, though. That's what we're talking about, that vision of like you shouldn't have to rely on the government to be able to access resources that exist in your community that your other community members are offering.

SPEAKER_07 30:30

I mean, I think even now it's a little frightening the idea of lying upon, right?

SPEAKER_09 30:35

To even bring the government into um things in certain ways just for no other reason. I mean, there's many reasons, but for no other reason, at least in this case, they might offer a resource now, but it's gone tomorrow. And that has happened over and over and over again in our communities. And so people don't want to trust a government-run resource center. People don't want those anymore because they've been taken away.

SPEAKER_07 30:53

Still important. They're still important. They serve their purpose. They do, but they are looking for something.

SPEAKER_09 30:58

They're looking for something different and something organic, something that really is from their neighbors, from their community. I think having that yearning is really loud. People want a physical space to be together that doesn't require them to spend lots of money and is not controlled or censored by the government. And they want events that are not just tabling events. They don't want a resource fair.

SPEAKER_07 31:22

They really want community.

SPEAKER_09 31:23

They want community, right? They want play. They want memories of good times. When they talk about good old days, what was happening was they were having a good time. They're having a good time with each other.

SPEAKER_07 31:33

Yeah, that sense of belongingness core.

SPEAKER_09 31:35

Ah, yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_07 31:37

I've been to many events and I work up the courage to go and then I leave feeling more isolated and alone than before I went. Yes. It's because that connection isn't there. No. Or I have to try to force into a group.

SPEAKER_09 31:50

Because that's not the that's not the point of the that event.

SPEAKER_07 31:52

Exactly. Right?

SPEAKER_09 31:53

But when you're events, the whole point is literally fostering connection with people, actively trying to get people to meet with each other, to meet new people, to build relationships. What does that kind of event look like? And that's what these two different processes they were different. They were run differently, but they ended up in the same place because they're such across communities, there is such a deep interest and need, yearning for connection to no longer be isolated. And I think that's so profound and worth funding and worth much larger conversations across funders to figure out in this area how do we make what the community is very clearly asking for happen. Two entirely separate processes yielding the same result is really, really, really important to listen to.

Up Next for CLGC

SPEAKER_07 32:47

No doubt. And it gives me hope to know that that's the community that I'm living in, even though I'm not necessarily always experiencing it. That's hopeful for me. Because I see a future there. So what's up? What's next for community-led grantmaking? What are we working on?

SPEAKER_09 33:01

So community-led grantmaking is now making its decisions. That'll be a fun yeah. It'll be wrestle with that. Right. Wrestling with power. So they'll be making decisions. We'll be entering partnership with um some funded organizations or fiscally sponsored individuals. And um after that, there's gonna be that action planning we talked about so that we can we can build. We can build a future version of this.

SPEAKER_07 33:27

Yeah, so when will we know what's being funded?

SPEAKER_09 33:30

Early November, we're making announcements, public announcements. Because we don't even know right now what we're funding. So we gotta figure that out. But um, after we figure that out, we'll be announcing it early in November.

SPEAKER_07 33:43

This part of the process is gonna be heart-wrenching.

SPEAKER_09 33:46

I know. There was so many things they have to decide. Yeah. Yeah. Um, one thing I will say, I would just add on the end, and I think is really admirable, was that this committee really wanted to make sure that each person who was selected and each person who wasn't selected left knowing why. That was really, really important to them. We talked about what it was like to ask for money generally.

SPEAKER_07 34:08

Yeah.

Thank Yous

SPEAKER_09 34:08

Not like in a grant process, but just this idea of asking for money, putting yourself out there. And when you do that, hearing a no and what that feels like and what that, you know, what that means. And so they wanted something that was really compassionate. So at the very least, it wasn't I'm floating around trying to figure out why I wasn't chosen, why not me, or why not my organization, kind of feeling. I think that's really human. Yeah, really human.

SPEAKER_07 34:31

You really have found a way. And having been privileged to watch you seriously facilitate this process. I mean, insane amounts of self-control. I I truly, though, you really did create a space that was for them. Yeah, it was theirs. And so I just want to thank you. Thank you for taking the time to talk about this work. And no, seriously, watching your compassionate brilliance at work has been just beautiful.

SPEAKER_09 34:59

Thank you, Michael.

SPEAKER_07 35:01

Yes. Anything else you want to say before we head out?

SPEAKER_09 35:05

No. I, you know what? I want to say I want to have my own thank yous. I really want to thank you for being such a thought partner throughout this. And I want to say thank you to my committee for for sticking it out. It's been, you know, it's two years of time with Helene and lots of life changes for each of them. You know, we experienced a lot of big stuff together. I'm just so thankful that they gave it a real serious go. They took it really seriously, and they learned and they grew.

SPEAKER_02 35:33

And that's honestly everything I could ever ask for.

SPEAKER_01 35:37

We've done so much amazing work together with Tara as our guide and support system. And that's what's important. I would not change this entire process for the world, even with all the crazy things that have come up. Tara does have the superpower, like facilitator gene that is an amazing thing to watch. I think Tara was amazing with everything.

SPEAKER_08 35:57

I mean, he especially understand uh every one of our thoughts. She understands us, she knows us, even like just um if we're staying quiet and she she knows. I don't know, that was amazing that okay, you're quiet for a while. Like she could read us, paying attention, and um sometimes when we we even have to speak and she knows like you know how how we feel. I don't know, she's amazing intuitive. Exactly. And she wants us to do it, to be creative and to have the idea and no like put the idea on us, just leaving us, you know, free. It's being great work with Tara and I learned a lot a lot from her.

SPEAKER_06 36:39

I really did trust Tara from the very beginning. She was an amazing facilitator, amazing recorder, amazing, like at creating exercises for us to call information in different ways. And she held that vision. And I also feel like she gave me a lot of cues along the way about how to how to be present in the space.

SPEAKER_03 36:57

I definitely appreciate her within the past year. I've been going through a lot myself personally. And she always been there. And like you say, like she can tell. And it's like, huh? You know, and she's like a lot younger than me. And it just made me feel like really good that um around an actual group of people that she got together that's actually genuine, like actually really freaking genuine. Just her allowing us to be who we are, to express our feelings, whether we was laughing, crying, or emotional, anything of that nature. She was always there. I'm very passionate about my community and not only my community, but all of our community, you know, and for her to just call and check on you and see how you're doing, and you know, just making sure that you're okay. And she's an awesome person and she's a beautiful person inside and out. That to me alone just means a lot to me, just to be around someone such as genuine and passionate as she is. Also, she says what she says and she means what she says. I love that. You know, and I love that about her 100%. You know, we had the conversation about, you know, um the government entity, and she just told us, like, no, you say how you feel, and that's what it is, and this is what our organization is, this is what this is about. And we're not looking up and don't apologize for it. And that really meant a lot that she said that because, you know, a lot of times we feel maybe we shouldn't say this, maybe we should keep quiet. But she made it to where it's like I had way more confidence. Even when I was scared, I could see it in her face, like, you got this, you got, don't you dare. So her actions, not only with her words, not only her body language, it all shows how passionate and genuine that she's actually really is as an individual. She is a light. That means a lot to me. She's definitely a light.

SPEAKER_04 38:40

I think she's great, honestly. I learned a lot. I think this was my first like deep, deep dive into just grant making, the business of it all, and just like the heart and soul that really goes into it in a professional state. She was very honest, and I love that. I think she was very straightforward and I love that because I hate sugarcoating. She's a force to be reckoned with, honestly. I like really do look up to her and I admire her and her work and the position that she takes as a young black woman. It really ignited something in me to like do more and want to do more. I'm not saying like I did the homework every time. I did a little glance, but like the way that she enticed us to really take a deep dive and really look into what our values and morals are as individuals, as a community, and what we want to bring to the table with that was very well done. I think it was very well done. Being a part of the community that I represent in this space, I literally have no regrets with that. I think this whole process in general, as it continues to, is like really knowledgeable and really adding, like adding to my mental resume of like things that I want to continue with. And I love, I love the fact that Tara has harped on so many times, like all the information that we gather, take it and use it elsewhere. You don't have to hold on to this information. It's not sacred. Take it and use it. And I love that she says that it really shows the organization that we're representing and it also shows her work ethic to be like, I'm not getting ready to just like do all this work for y'all to just like not boast about it. Go boast about it, go expand on it, like have fun with it because you put in the work to do it. I like really appreciate her for that too.

SPEAKER_06 40:34

There was a moment where I thought we should just do this for everybody. Just as having to go through it all together from different communities that I'm not normally associated with. That has been super, super rewarding.

SPEAKER_07 40:44

This isn't just about moving money, it's about moving power. What we've heard in this episode is more than a story about distributing grants. It's about building trust, connection, and leadership that lasts beyond the process itself. It's about building a community of communities where difference leads to drive instead of division. Thanks for listening in. Until next time. Peace.