Effective capital stewards don’t know all the answers, instead they’re deeply connected
You’ve recently been invited to join a new housing coalition and you’re genuinely interested. You're seeing firsthand how the skyrocketing cost of living is creating an urgent need for affordable housing and you're eager to support the effort in whatever way you can.
The Executive Director of the coalition’s lead organisation is thrilled that you’ve agreed to join. When you first meet, after some warm small talk, you freeze when she asks for your feedback on their Theory of Change and vision to establish a Community Land Trust. You’re not an expert and so you politely defer, nodding along as though you understand all the acronyms. It’s midnight now and you can’t get it out of your head: the gap between how you’re perceived and what you actually know. You don’t have all the answers, and worse still, the questions you're sitting with are the kind that no search bar can resolve.
This feeling doesn’t come out of the blue. There is a common myth that “the donor knows best” and we see it playing out in big ways and small. From tech entrepreneurs reorganising government departments and cutting foreign aid programs, to the deference to the major donor’s opinion at the board table. There is a general belief that if you’re successful in business those lessons can be applied to the nonprofit and impact sector. And for inheritors, there’s an assumption that having financial wealth means you also have relevant knowledge which may not be the case. It feels like everyone is looking to you to know what to do. While you personally reject these assumptions, you’re not exactly sure how to move forward. Becoming a housing expert could take years, decades even, and frankly there isn’t enough time for that, but you do know you have a meaningful role to play.
That gap between how you're perceived and what you actually know, is a common concern I hear from clients as a philanthropic advisor. One of the first things I offer is that you don’t have to become an expert to contribute to social change. The overreliance on individualism puts
the burden on one person or organisation to have all the answers. It’s time we let go of the pressure to do-it-yourself. There are many domains where getting support is not only acceptable, it’s routine. No one expects a first-time board chair to also be their own lawyer, auditor and investment committee; sophistication in any complex field looks like knowing which experts to gather around you, not learning it all yourself. We trust subject matter experts and their recommendations to inform our discernment, priorities, and decisions, which accelerates outcomes.
Pathways from DIY to Connected Giving
If you’re overwhelmed and feel like you can’t move forward with giving until you’re an expert or have more time, doing-it-yourself isn’t the only approach to philanthropy and it may limit the impact you’re hoping to achieve.
Below are pathways for support that will increase expertise and connection for you to consider:
You might start out by joining a community of wealthholders such as Forward Global, Women Moving Millions, Maverick Collective, Generation Pledge, Nexus, Toniic, The Impact (among others). These communities provide an entry point into philanthropy so that you can learn alongside peers. You could find peer communities that provide learning journeys in specific giving areas like, for example, housing or ask to be connected to another member who is also giving to housing initiatives.
If you’re ready to start giving and want to fund alongside others, you might consider joining a collaborative fund. In this case you donate to a fund pooling your resources with other donors. The benefit is that you’re able to learn with other wealth holders and funders, increase granting dollars, and share any potential risks helping you to achieve scale and systems level outcomes without the expectation that you’ll individually have all the answers. If you’re interested in a deeper dive, here’s more details on this class of giving. In the housing example, you could join collaborative fund like Community Ownership for Community Power Fund or the Greater Minnesota Housing Fund by making a donation to the fund and learning with fellow funders.
Another pathway is to engage professional support. If you’re not ready to hire full-time or dedicated staff, you can work with a philanthropic advisor or firm who can be a thought partner and sounding board helping you develop a strategy for your giving, select organisations to fund, and even act as your proxy if anonymity and privacy are important to you. This is a good option if you’re time-strapped, but want your capital moving strategically. With housing, for example, you might ask a philanthropic advisor or firm to conduct a landscape analysis for you to better understand who is already funding housing in your city or region and identify funding gaps where your giving can accelerate solutions underway.
For those looking to share decision making and priority setting, bring new voices to your foundation table by inviting external advisors with lived experience in the foundation’s priority areas to join an Advisory Committee or your Board of Directors. You may also consider introducing participatory grant making (PGM) into your giving strategy. PGM is a practice that shifts decision making power about priorities and funding into the hands of the communities that the funder aims to serve, moving you away from the role of expert and sole decider. Participatory Grantmaking Community offers resources and tools for those exploring this approach. In the housing example, these community-centric approaches could look like invite housing advocates to join your foundations’ Housing Grant Portfolio Advisory Committee providing honorarium for their time and expertise or dedicating a portion, or all of your granting portfolio, to be determined by a participatory committee that set priorities and makes funding decisions.
Navigating wealth can be isolating and that can be mirrored in siloed or individualistic giving practices that reinforce the myth that you need to be an expert. Philanthropy is a place where seeking community and expertise not only increases connection, it also improves outcomes and impact. This is an invitation to let go of the pressure to go it alone and lean into what connection can provide whether that’s with a peer, a collaborative fund, an advisor, or a community leader you’ve invited to your table with trust and real authority. None of these options require you to be an expert. It only requires knowing who does and having the courage to ask. Building community and drawing from external experts isn’t a shortcut, it’s a grounded step toward greater impact.
You don’t need to have a PhD in social housing before attending your next coalition meeting. You just need to know who to connect with to inform your approach. The most effective capital stewards aren’t the ones who know all the answers, they’re the ones who are deeply connected.