The Future of Participatory Grantmaking — some questions to get you thinking

Questions for the the Future of Participatory Grantmaking

How can we think about the Future of Participatory Grantmaking, what questions can we ask ourselves to reimagine what could be? What do we need to think about to frame our thinking and what should we be asking the community to push our practice further? Cassie Robinson, Southerners on New Ground via Allistair Mallillin and myself posed several questions in the Future of Participatory Grantmaking session to get your started.

• If participatory grantmaking was the norm what would the role of a funder actually be? What would we be asking staff to do? What would the structure of a fund look like? Would there be staff at all? What would the job description say?
• If you were writing a letter to an old friend describing what your days are in 2040 what would you say? What work are you doing? What events or key issues would you want to share?
• If you are at a celebration event for everything you’ve achieved in 2050 what would be on the list? What award would you want to be winning? What award categories would there be?
• How might the world have changed and how does this impact on funding? Is half the world under water? Are we looking back on this moment of history as the turning point in defeating white supremacy or are we grappling with different iterations of it? Are there flying cars and houses on the moon? Has democracy in itself changed- what does this means for democratic approaches to funding?
• What laws might have passed that have changed the way the world experiences wealth inequality? Is the wealth gap still growing? Shrinking? Where in the world is wealth created and held?
• Give while you live — has this succeeded or failed? How are people giving money? Or are they not? Has taxation replaced philanthropy?
• Has the way we create our investments changed — How? Are we more moral in our development of wealth or are we still investing in harm while pretending to do good with the other hand?
• How do communities work together — do they? Is it still funders and communities? Are they one and the same? How has that happened? How does that present itself?
• How does this interact with technological developments — Artificial intelligence, data, tech? Are humans even involved? Does machine learning mean we can programme computers to make the same decisions as people?
• What’s the creativity and care we need to bring to grantmaking?
• What else may be required from PGM and this community — how do we keep evolving to meet new needs?
• How is participatory grantmaking practice going to address the idea that communities don’t know what they don’t know? And that we often need to go beyond what is known or understood in the present
• How is participatory grantmaking practice going to work with other kinds of intelligences?
• How is participatory grantmaking practice going to draw on what technologies can afford?
• How is participatory grantmaking going to bring imagination practices into its approach so that we can really manifest radical alternatives?
• How is participatory grantmaking practice going to co-evolve with machine and all living systems intelligence?
• What are you willing to give up in service of the movement?