Dancing like our funders are watching
Last night, funders from across London danced to a playlist of songs put together by Camden Giving’s community panellists and members of the Participatory Grantmaking Community Of Practice.
Camden Giving hosted the event at the Collective as part of London Funders Festival of Learning.
But what’s dancing got to do with overcoming inequality?
If you think dancing is joyful, then it has everything to do with it! Joy is what will move us to better systems for wealth distribution in London. Over the last 6 months, I’ve received a growing number of urgent messages from funders and grantees telling me that they were struggling to find joy in their work and, in some cases they were at breaking point. Geraud from Barking and Dagenham Giving wrote about the strains of leadership here. I think a lot of people will recognise those moments.
We can't carry on like this and do what's needed.
We need to take time to dance and find joy. We don't always have to be doing more, running faster and being serious. Dancing can’t solve serious mental health issues created by our working lives. But it can be a start!
Camden Giving is a participatory grantmaker. People with lived experience of the issues we address are always at the helm of our grant decisions; 250 people and counting have awarded grants with us. We think that most funders should adopt participatory grantmaking, but we don't want to preach about it. Let's dance about it instead.
Over the last year, we've tried to find ways to increase the well-being of our grantees, removing application forms and expanding grant sizes to include well-being activities for staff and volunteers. But these actions are pointless if we can't start with our own organisation if we're never able to pause and be unproductive.
If you feel like Bastile, "if you close your eyes, does it almost feel like nothing changed at all... how am I going to be an optimist about this?" Maybe you need to find more time to dance with us.
You can enjoy the participatory grantmaking playlist here.