Inside Philanthropy: An Inside Look Into a Music Funder’s Democratized Grantmaking Process
“The philanthropic sector is facing growing demands to level the power imbalance between funders and the communities they aim to serve, with more attention being paid to participatory grantmaking and other practices that seek to democratize funding decisions. That’s been a slow-going process, according to a 2020 IP survey of professionals in the arts sector, with only 10% saying there is truly a growing trend, and 40% saying it will happen “very slowly over time.”
Still, there are some forward-thinking examples in the arts field, like the Mosaic Network and Fund, the MacArthur Foundation’s Culture, Equity, and the Arts initiative, and the Lewis Prize for Music. We’ve covered the Lewis Prize before, and when its leadership invited IP to sit in on its grantmaking process, which involves panels of outside evaluators, we were eager to take a look behind the scenes.
Founded in 2018 by Miami philanthropist Daniel Lewis, the Lewis Prize recognizes and funds leaders at creative youth development (CYD) programs that provide young people with opportunities to create music while serving their food, transportation, mental health and academic needs. Last January, the prize’s board awarded a total of $1.75 million to nine winners, with three winners receiving $500,000 apiece. In July, the prize announced a $1.25 million in COVID-19 crisis response for 32 CYD organizations, two-thirds of which were led by people of color.”
