“While grassroots groups have the ability to flip these power structures and build alternative solutions, they may also replicate the same systems that privilege only certain people’s needs for health, safety, and wellbeing. The issues at hand are urgent, but without creating groups that challenge these dynamics, our solutions will remain faulty at best, and perpetuate oppressive dynamics at worst.” - Grassroots Fund (Learn more here)

We often get questions about the intensity of our grant review process given our focus on small, volunteer-driven community groups. 

In our Grow Grants Program altogether, 150+ community grant readers, 16 Grantmaking Committee members and all 6 full time Grassroots Fund staff are part of our decision making process for each round, taking ~3 months to complete (for a more detailed description of the full process, see here). 

People want to know: Wouldn’t we be better serving the movement by making our application super short and getting dollars out the door as fast as possible? 

The answer is all about Shifting Power. Our participatory process allows community members to participate meaningfully in both the initial review and final decisions for Grow grants. This meaningful decision making includes opportunities to share feedback with applicants about where to strengthen alignment with the Guiding Practices in their own work.

Strengthening our local environmental justice movement is about more than getting dollars out the door. Our grantmaking programs are shifting power at a local level as applicant groups grow and develop their work through feedback from decision makers. They are shifting power on a regional level as Community Grant Readers, current and emerging leaders from all across the region, build leadership skills and reflect deeply on how the work is done. Finally, they are shifting power on a national level as we develop and promote grantmaking practices that are rooted in community self determination and grassroots principles. Shifting the power and control held by top down philanthropy for generations to the hands of grassroots community organizers. 

In this upcoming 3-part series, Shifting Power in Practice - Participatory Decision-making, we will dive into how Shifting Power in Decision-making has shown up in our work and our grantees' work in the Spring 2026 grantmaking round. By collecting, reviewing and sharing these reflections from participants we aim to show the impact of this approach and share what we are learning from and reflecting on as we continuously participatinker with our programs with community feedback. Philanthropy needs to change and our goal with these posts and other posts about our process and learnings in the future is to transparently share how we are learning and growing and what we are reflecting on. We hope you'll explore!

Spotlight #1: Grow Community Grant Readers

Spotlight #2: Kwaku Asare, Grantmaking Committee Member

Spotlight #3: Grow Grantee Reflections

The Grow Community Grant Reader Program - Shifting Power in Decision-making through Participatory Grantmaking

One way that the Grassroots Fund upholds Shifting Power in Decision-making is through our participatory grantmaking process. Community Grant Readers are the very first group of decision-makers in Grassroots Fund’s participatory grantmaking process. Across three weeks, they dedicate 5-18 hours of their time to review grants from community groups across New England. Their scores, feedback, and questions deeply inform the rest of the grantmaking process - guiding staff’s follow-up calls with applicants and the Grow Grantmaking Committee’s (a 16-member group of grassroots leaders from across the region) final funding decisions. Fun fact: most Grow and Seed Grantmaking Committee members have served as readers! 

Grow Spring 2026 brought us not only our largest round of applicants, but also our largest round of readers! Throughout the round, we had 160-200 people participate in the review process. 

Fortunately, nearly 45% of our readers were generous enough to take the time to share their reflections on their experience this round. Keep reading to hear directly from them what it is like to be a reader!

FIRST-TIME READERS

Roughly 45% of those who shared their reflections were first-time readers.

Timothy, the founder of Common Ground Recovery Inc., and also a first-time Grantmaking Committee member, shared, “I'm grateful for having this eye opening experience and getting a better understanding of the meaningful and thoughtful work being done by groups all around New England.” 

Nearly 90% of respondents agreed with Timothy, believing one of the benefits they gained as grant reader was learning about and from grassroots groups across the region. The second most popular benefit affirmed by 80.8% of readers was gaining an understanding of environmental justice practices and how groups are implementing them on the ground. One reader, Kenny expanded on this and listed as an additional benefit, “the breadth of themes supported by Grassroots Fund”.

Reflecting on the opportunity to choose how many applications you can review (ranging from 4 to 15+), Carla shared, “I was only able to ready about four grants and I wish I had had more time to dedicated to the experience.” Nearly 90% of readers found that the total amount of time they spent participating as a grant reader met their expectations, with most spending 30 minutes to an hour reviewing each application and completing their rubric.

PAST GRANT READERS

Nearly 55% of those who shared their reflections with us were past readers - the majority at 44% have joined us for 2 - 5 rounds. These returning readers shared some of the reasons they keep coming back to be a reader round after round.

Speaking to the less tangible benefits of being a reader, Cris shared, “It’s so motivating-significant to be reminded that there’s so much warmth and very sincere people out interacting with each other!”

Reflecting on how being a reader highlighted shared experiences across New England, Georgiana shared, “Being a grant reader is such a rewarding, eye opening process.  Where I live is remote and has some of the same issues as the larger towns and cities in New England, but we are also isolated from many others.”

Regarding the Grassroots Fund’s commitment to funding groups who face barriers to funding, including those without 501(c)(3) status, Mickey shared, “Overall, it was so very positive, I love the model of funding and resource sharing for groups who traditionally face barriers when applying for grants.”

Highlighting the novelty of every round, Maja shared, “It is always a pleasure to be part of the process.  There is always something new to learn.” 

JOIN US

Approximately 97% of readers said they would recommend this experience to others in their network. If you have been on the fence about signing us as a reader, we hope this brief glimpse into the reader experience encourages you to join us in a future round. 

To stay in the loop, we encourage you to follow us on social media (Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn) and register for our newsletter. Last but not least, you can always access the sign-up form on our website. 

P.S. We always encourage applicants and grantees to be readers - even if they are submitting an application for the same round!