BY WILLIAM GONDOKUSUMO, CAMPAIGN FOR GOOD
According to The Center for Effective Philanthropy’s Voices that Matter report, 71% of foundations believe their programs align with community needs. Most nonprofits disagree.
That gap almost always starts at selection. And at its heart, it is a question of who gets to decide who gets funded, and whose voice counts in that decision.
Communities are surveyed, interviewed, and consulted. Their needs are documented and presented in reports. But when shortlists are being finalised, and decisions are being made, they are not in the room. Insight is gathered. Input is not.
From Insight to Input
I first felt this gap up close during the pandemic. Inspired by my late grandmother’s belief that every child deserved a good start, we partnered with Reachout Foundation to run a grant for early childhood centres in underserved neighbourhoods in Jakarta. Experts shortlisted the strongest applicants. Then we tried something different: we opened the process to the community. Parents, neighbours, and friends completed verified actions to signal which centres they trusted and believed in.
Beyond our expectations, over 8,000 community members took more than 20,000 actions to help select which 10 early childhood centres would receive the grant. But what stayed with me was not the data. It was the moment the winning centres gave their thanks. They did not only thank the panel. They thanked their parents, their neighbours, and their friends. The community had been part of the decision. And everyone knew it.
Beyond the Proposal
Since then, we have worked with partners including Temasek Trust’s CIIP, AVPN ImpactCollab, Djarum Foundation, and Inspiring Asia to run over 20 grant and award programs across the region, with over 63,000 verified community participants helping select grantees across education, health, and community development. The pattern holds: when communities have a structured role in the selection process, the decisions carry greater legitimacy, grantees feel genuinely chosen, not just approved, and funders gain better insight into real community needs. The stories that surface are also more authentic and shared with communities, moving beyond why a grant is offered to why applicants want it and how their communities would benefit from it. It shifts the narrative from funder-centred to community-centred. And it changes who grantees feel accountable to: not just upwards to a panel, but outwards to their community.
This is not about replacing expert judgment. It is about expanding what counts as evidence and bringing more voices into the room.
An Open Invitation
Together with Love Frankie and Asia Community Foundation, we are exploring how to make Community-Centred Grantmaking more accessible for grantmakers across Southeast Asia. If you are exploring how to bring communities and their stories into your grant selection process, or are simply curious about what this looks like in practice, I would love to connect.
Because the answer to “how much say should communities have in who gets funded?” should not be 0%.
William Gondokusumo is the Founder and CEO of Campaign for Good and an APC member. He is working on a regional Community-Centred Grantmaking initiative with Love Frankie and Asia Community Foundation.