In 2020, Convergence Partnership provided flexible Covid rapid response grants to support the organizing, advocacy, and narrative transformation efforts of 19 grassroots organizations and coalitions. The Partnership’s commitment to equitable and responsive grantmaking practices and elevating community voices, led us to streamline and reimagine our grantmaking application and reporting requirements. We did not require grantees to submit any final written reports. Instead, grantees were offered the option to have their work documented through locally produced podcast episodes.
Working Narratives—the Partnership’s narrative transformation consultants—collaborated with teams of local audio producers, grantees and their community partners, and media artists to produce the Convergence Partnership Podcast Series in 2021. The series features community leaders and organizers from the San Joaquin Valley and across the state of California; Kansas City, Missouri; Louisiana; Chicago; and Buffalo, New York. The podcasts allowed grantees to showcase the voices and leadership of their organizers, coalition members, and other community partners. Each episode serves as powerful collateral material that grantees can use over and over again to highlight their successes and stories.
This guide aims to inspire other funders to similarly reimagine conventional grant-reporting norms and to support communities to tell their stories in their own words.