/ 29 April 2011

Making ethical grants

Grant-making is far more than the foundation of social investment work in South Africa. It is, and is likely to remain, the largest component of corporate social investment.

Whether we choose to focus on broad-based or programmatic funding, on short-term or long-term partnerships, grant-making is at the core. Done properly, grant-making is a highly accountable intervention that relies on local knowledge and effective partnerships for success, which is why using it in empowering ways is so important.

Social investment work is about people. It is about the people who have the means to help, the people with the energy and vision to employ those means to make a difference, the people in whose lives this difference is made or who see opportunities slipping from their grasp.

Working with these people is an honour — and it is an honour that grant-makers, or their representatives, must deserve. We must deserve this honour by conducting ourselves not just efficiently or professionally, but also ethically.

We must conduct ourselves as we ought to, not simply as we are enjoined to do. And those who judge whether we have behaved as we ought to behave are, in the final reckoning, those people with whom we build relationships. Ethics cannot in all cases be pulled from an inviolable list of commandments.

As with any sensitive set of human relationships, understanding, empathy, experience and an awareness of the limitations of our experience are necessary before we can be confident that we are acting as we should.

There are some practical guidelines that, in my experience, can help us navigate the course of ethical leadership. We dare not be arrogant and assume we have all the answers. We need not only to listen to what social change champions are sharing with us, but also to refine the quality of our listening.

How we listen is critical to how we understand and comprehend. Organisations have to share their experience of what works and does not work and, just as importantly, what their dreams and aspirations for the future are. Their on-the-ground knowledge often does not fit any neat preconceptions we may have.

What is real and possible in one place may not be replicable in another. We should not make promises we cannot keep or create false expectations. We must also avoid being pressured by an organisation to fulfil expectations. As tempting as it is to be “the good guy” and predict a rosy future, it is far fairer to be upfront about who ultimately makes funding decisions, the fact that this is a competitive space and that we are unable to give any initial guarantees.

We should avoid a hierarchical relationship whereby we assume control and instead focus on building partnerships — difficult and frustrating as this can sometimes be. Developing a partnership takes time and effort. As with any relationship it needs to deepen over time and be mutually beneficial. It requires engagement beyond the paperwork that hits our desk.

Some relationships are more intense than others, some more long-lasting and some disappointing.
We cannot be led by sentimentality. Lamenting over pictures of orphaned or destitute children should not be the basis of decision-making but rather an important realisation of the harsh realities that do exist.

What is far more important is our response to these harsh realities and to understanding how best ordinary people can respond to these challenges. It is in the stories of humanity’s victories and brave “muddling through” that we find the way to true partnerships that can work. As leaders, the decision-making of grant-makers needs to be guided by wisdom and objectivity, not by personal agendas.

We must be sensitive to the limitations imposed by our various upbringings on how we perceive ­others and society. Objectivity implies fairness and being fair means understanding the implications of our decisions.

We must consider cause and effect in the deepest sense and explore what this means at the core of development. We should, above all, strive to engage our partners with care, respect and integrity and treat them as we ourselves would wish to be treated. That should, after all, form the foundation of any ethical code.

Tracey Henry is chief executive of Tshikululu Social Investments and a judge of the Investing in the Future and Drivers of Change awards