Overcoming Bias in Grant Making
What can you do to reduce implicit bias?
July 21, 2022. When deciding where and when to award a philanthropic grant, personal opinion can occasionally cloud objectivity. This type of personal bias can be made both consciously and unconsciously, resulting in a less optimal or impactful allotment of funds. It is important to be aware of how implicit bias can impact your grant making decision, and incorporate some best practices into your process to ensure these biases can be overcome:
Audit past grants: Through a review of previous grant awards, see if one area is receiving more than another. Of course, having focus is important, however you’ll want to see if there are any unintended, unconscious biases that have evolved over time.
Ensure fairness: Fairness is critical in the grant making process. Have a well defined, documented process for grant allocation decisions that demonstrates your intention of evaluating potential grant recipients equally.
Include stakeholders: Having multiple decision makers take part in award and allocation decisions can widen the variety of perspectives on where grants should go, and better represent the interests and values of your internal and external stakeholders.
In reality, bias can never be completely overcome in decision making. At some point in the decision making process, implicit bias is likely to sway you in a particular direction. The goal of overcoming bias in grant making isn’t to entirely remove bias from the equation. Rather, we want to identify where bias may exist and decide if it warrants taking action or not. We want to move away from implicit or unconscious biases, eliminating as much as possible throughout the process.
What is a “fair” grant making process? Fairness ultimately depends on your organization's intended philanthropic goal. For example, fairness could be making sure all areas have an equal chance of receiving a grant. Or, fairness could be allocating grants to the least represented, underserved groups. Or, a more recent methodology is to award grants like an investment portfolio, with awards targeting mature or established recipients with demonstrated track records of impact, recipients that are smaller but rapidly growing, or recipients that are in new, untested areas. If you are struggling to decide which avenue to take, an easy method of fairness could be to make all grants equal in value. Then, all recipients receive the same amount, regardless of need.
Steps to Overcome Bias in Grant Making
It is important to define and document your specific decision making methodology so that the process is clear and transparent. Using an independent, neutral third party, like a research or advisory firm, to help you design the process can also eliminate potential for implicit bias in your process. Following these steps will help create awareness of potential implicit bias in your decision making, and help build equitable approaches to grant making.
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