How many cooks does it take to finish the perfect dish? No, this isn’t the start of a joke. It’s more of an intro to reflecting on PFund’s letter of inquiry process. In August PFund kicked off our annual grant round. We received more than 80 letters of inquiry from LGBT nonprofits and programs seeking funding for the work they are doing across the Upper Midwest.
The reason for the whole cooking question in the first sentence is this: there were seven people – a mix of staff and community members – who spent four hours talking through the letters. Having never been a part of this process before, we were more than impressed by the thoroughness of the process. There were at least three times when “the majority” voted no on a particular project, not seeing the connection between the project description and PFund’s grant guidelines. On each of these occasions, one of the reviewers made a passionate and detailed pitch, asking the rest of us to reflect for a moment longer on the potential impact PFund funding could have. They pointed out elements we had missed, provided context we had overlooked, and generally made sure that some very viable projects got through that might otherwise have been overlooked.
This is why the community part of a community foundation is key: not a single one of us has enough information or insight to fully appreciate the breadth of our community. The only thing we can each agree to do is this: keep listening and be open to learning. PFund is grateful for every organization, project and individual leader working hard to make our lives more joyful. In the end we invited 35 groups to submit full proposals. From GSA development to theater productions, from lobbying to leadership development, this year’s set of applicants are responding to urgent and critical needs across the region and building powerful LGBT communities for the longhaul.
While we can’t yet fund everything that deserves to be funded, we are going to continue working hard to get closer to funding every single one of them. Go ahead, go online and make a donation towards that glorious future.
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