OPEN PHILANTHROPY
When Change Is Hard: Caring for Long-Time Partners While Evolving Our Strategies for Greater Impact
By Natalia Valenzuela Swanson, Senior Director of Community Impact
Impact, collaboration, accountability, respect, and equity are the Mary Black Foundation’s values. These principles that anchor our work were put to the test two years ago when we made the decision to shift our grantmaking priorities. The change was made to strengthen our impact, but it also meant some longstanding nonprofit partners would no longer align squarely with our focus and would likely face reduced and less certain funding from us.
This was particularly painful for me because the organizations affected were from my own portfolio—partners I had worked with for years and value deeply. Here’s how we tried to live out our values through the difficult transition.
Evolving Our Priorities
For 20 years, the Mary Black Foundation focused on two priorities: Early Childhood Development and Healthy Eating | Active Living. As we approached the two-decade mark, our team spent about 18 months reflecting on how to build on what we had accomplished. Ultimately, our board decided to move from two priorities to a single focus: improving outcomes for children and their families. This change would allow us to prioritize what research shows can have the greatest impact on community health—focusing on the earliest years of life, supporting multiple generations, and taking a holistic approach.
The Hard Part
While it was exciting, the transition was not without its challenge: after two decades of shared work, a handful of long-time partners that had come to rely on consistent support from the Foundation were no longer directly aligned with our new focus and future funding from us would not be as certain. Figuring out how to balance these strong relationships while staying responsive to the greatest needs of our community was the most difficult part of this transition for our team. We worked hard to move forward with honesty and transparency, allowing that to guide the steps we took.
Taking Thoughtful Steps
Recognizing the effect this change would have on these partners, we knew our next steps had to be intentional, transparent, and grounded in our values. We took the following steps to support our partners through this transition.
1. One-on-one meetings: Our President/CEO, Chief Strategy Officer, and I met with each of the impacted partners before the shift was publicly announced. In these conversations, we shared how the Foundation came to this decision and provided space to answer questions.
2. Transition grants: We committed to providing three years of unrestricted step-down transition funding for these organizations to close out the Healthy Eating | Active Living work. The amount was calculated based on an average of each organization’s grant funding over the previous five years. Our hope was that this would give organizations a buffer to adjust and plan for future years.
3. Supporting sustainability: We have provided additional support to the organizations to build their capacity, including funding consultants to help them explore the health of their organizations, strategic alignment, fundraising, and mergers.
Guided By Our Values
Throughout this process, we leaned into the values that anchor our work: impact, collaboration, accountability, respect, and equity. We sought to be accountable with all the resources we have to drive greater impact for our community, with a focus on those most in need. And we aimed to act with respect for the collaborative relationships we’d built over many years.
Even with the careful steps we took, this process wasn’t easy, and it was impossible to get everything perfectly right. But through it all, I’ve been reminded of how much we can learn from both successes and challenges, and how much stronger we are when we approach difficult decisions with honesty and care. After all, regardless of our strategic priorities, we can only accomplish our mission by building and maintaining relationships of trust and respect with the partners we work alongside.
Natalia Valenzuela Swanson is the Senior Director of Community Impact at the Mary Black Foundation, where she oversees the Foundation’s grantmaking process and partnerships with nonprofit organizations. Since joining the Foundation in 2015, she has worked to foster collaboration and support for community-driven solutions that improve the health and well-being of Spartanburg residents.
Open Philanthropy is a recurring column in our monthly newsletter dedicated to pulling back the curtain on how we make funding decisions, why we structure things the way we do, and how we’re always working to be a better partner.
