What do communities across America need and want to advance equity?
How can philanthropy be a more effective partner in supporting those goals?
The BUILD Health Challenge(R) (BUILD) spent the last year exploring these questions and shared key learnings with Philanthropy News Digest. In their op-ed titled, “When Less is More: How Sharing Power Leads to Greater Impact” BUILD funding collaborative members TC Duong, Brittany Giles-Cantrell, Chris Kabel, and Emily Yu share program examples, resources, and ideas for how the philanthropic sector and communities can work together to dismantle, and actively reinvent, systems that prevent equity from being fully realized.
That process starts with a fundamental realignment of power between funders and community—one that reflects and honors both groups’ expertise and experience. The conversations hosted by BUILD surfaced four vital approaches to centering equity:
- Designing with, not for
- Building equity capacity
- Changing deeply rooted policy and practice
- Sharing power
