What has always set WDN apart is in how we do our work — by collaborating with movement leaders, trusting their expertise, committing to personal and cultural transformation, and building toward liberation for all. We are living in unprecedented times, and movement partners are calling on us to go beyond collaboration. They need us to be bold, take risks, and trust in their leadership and lived experience. We’re responding to their call for philanthropy to shift power and center their expertise with participatory grantmaking (PGM).

At its core, participatory grantmaking (PGM) shifts decision-making power from traditional grantmakers to the communities most impacted by injustice. PGM promotes a more effective, transparent, and equitable grantmaking approach by ensuring that funding priorities align with the actual needs of communities. 

In many ways, PGM reflects the core values already in operation here at WDN, and it has the potential to transform our work even more. That’s why two of our member-involved grantmaking steering committees are adopting PGM models to fortify movements for the challenges — and celebrations — that lie ahead.

Members of the Jean Hardisty Initiative and the Safe & Sustainable Future for All Impact Collective Steering Committees spent the summer gathering input from grantee partners on the benefits and challenges of moving to a PGM model. Throughout our conversations, a central tension emerged: how to balance WDN’s accountability as a funder with a genuine commitment to community-led decision making. However, our partners urged us to own our power as donor activists, trusting that we are uniquely able to create a space for them to lead, grow, and lean into their experience. 

Members and grantees agree that PGM can create… 

• A dynamic where donors and community leaders meet in mutuality, dignity, and respect, with a shared understanding of power and what each party brings to the table. 
• An accountable, brave space where all can acknowledge and learn from past harms or negative experiences to build a better future. 
• The opportunity to prioritize deep accountability and lived experience over professional credentials. 

But participatory models aren’t without challenges… 

• It can be more labor-intensive, even though giving and processing feedback is critical to maintaining a more equitable power dynamic. 
• Donor activists need intentional structure, context, and political education to effectively engage in the work. 
• Parties need an established structure to manage conflict, inevitable in group dynamics, with clear boundaries and guardrails.

PGM works best when it’s grounded in clarity, trust, and collective accountability. By valuing all voices – from our members to movement partners – we are already defying traditional philanthropy by building power with, not power over. In the coming months, the Safe & Sustainable Impact Collective and the Jean Hardisty Initiative will begin selecting and inviting partners to serve on the councils, which are set to launch in early 2026. 

We are grateful to our steering committee members for their participation in the summer listening sessions and look forward to sharing additional updates. So much of this work is grounded in the philosophies the late Jean Hardisty brought to WDN. As she wrote in Mobilizing Resentment, “After decades of claiming to speak for oppressed people of all races and ethnicities, the progressive movement must now learn to look to the same people for leadership.”