Our journey so far with participatory grantmaking

Foundation North is increasingly interested in using participatory grantmaking (PGM) as a high-trust, community-led approach to advance impact across our strategic focus areas.

A new report, prepared by our Centre for Social Impact, draws on case studies of five different participatory grantmaking initiatives which Foundation North supported between 2019 and 2023, each with diverse community panels participating and a range of different co-funders contributing: Pacific Youth Future Makers, the Asian Artists’ Fund, Roskill Decides, Kōrero Mai Papakura and Oranga Decides.

The report concludes that while each instance or iteration of participatory grantmaking will be different, with new thinking required each time, there are certainly common benefits and challenges worth sharing so that pitfalls can be avoided and impact better enabled.

Foundation North is still learning and evolving in this space, and is happy to share this synthesis of insights, and the five individual case studies, with others.

Read the report 
Copies of the case studies can be requested by email info@foundationnorth.org.nz