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Tensions and Alignment: The relationship between funders and service providers

October 22nd, 1:00-2:00pm ET

Hosted by the Development Professionals NETGroup

Any service providing agency seeks out funders to support their work and for most of us in the Jewish social service world, we partner with funders from within the Jewish community as well as outside the Jewish community like government funding and corporate foundations. These relationships always have enough alignment to lead to funding – but there is inevitably tension in the relationship too. In this session, JIAS Toronto and two of our funders will speak candidly about some of these tensions:

– Storytelling: who has the right to tell the stories of our clients and work? Everyone is telling the stories of clients and services – the agencies, the funders, community partners, and everyone we interact with. Who has the right to tell the story? What story is appropriate to tell?

– Red Lines: what do we do if funders have particular positions or guidelines that are not perfectly aligned with the funded agency? Every funder has been faced with an agency they want to fund for a particular project; however, there is a value misalignment that may upset board members or conflict with the funder’s guidelines. What happens in these situations for both parties? And as we grow and change as organizations, our narratives change, both grantees and funders. How do we check (and do we?) if we still have enough in common and there is no misalignment on the fundamentals.

– Reporting: what can a funder ask for, what do they have a right to know? It’s not unheard of for an agency to get a new request from a funder for data or stories partway through a granting period. Do you always need to say yes?

– Service Delivery Preferences: funders sometimes want to influence how a program or service is delivered and by whom.

When a funder has a strong opinion about how the services should be delivered or which staff or partners should or should not be involved, what does a grantee do to maintain funding and also maintain control of their work? The session will address these common tensions, give examples of how both sides of the funding relationship address these issues, and leave space for discussion on how we can address these tensions as a sector.

Presented by:

• Naomi Kramer. Senior Manager, Development, JIAS Toronto

• Joshua Otis, Senior Director, Social Services and Community, UJA Federation of Greater Toronto

• Stacey Helpert, President, Stacey Helpert – Strategic Philanthropy

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