FROM ELAINA MULÉ, CHARLES SCHWAB BANK
August 2024
We are witnessing an important shift in the asset building space as funders work to center their impact in community voice. This practice resonates deeply with funders’ goal of empowering individuals and communities while working alongside and in partnership with them.
At Charles Schwab Bank, we recognize that the communities we serve hold invaluable insights essential for developing philanthropic and asset-building strategies that are not only effective, but also inclusive. Partnering with Listen4Good has allowed Charles Schwab Bank to incorporate community voices meaningfully, align our goals with those of our grantees, and enhance our overall impact. It is our hope that sharing our experience can offer other funders insights to intentionally incorporate client voice into their work as well.
The Importance of Building Nonprofits’ and Funders’ Capacity for Connection
For Charles Schwab Bank, it has become imperative to move beyond prescriptive funding practices and embrace responsive grantmaking that prioritizes community voice. Working with Listen4Good, a capacity building program that trains nonprofit leaders to listen to their end-users and take action to incorporate feedback into their business decisions, has provided us a clear path to understand the experiences of community members and to share those insights with organizational leaders and other funders.
Our commitment to centering community voices is first and foremost the right thing to do, and it is also a strategic advantage in fulfilling our regulatory objectives under the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). The Listen4Good initiative was highlighted as a particularly innovative, and responsive effort by our Banks’ Regulators. Our efforts to expand Listen4Good to communities, where we funded cohorts of nonprofits to participate, were especially recognized.
In partnership with the Asset Funders Network (AFN) and Listen4Good, we developed a cohort-based model that recruited additional funders to support financially and also convened learning communities among service providers. The collaborative nature of this initiative and the impact of its learnings on our funding decisions were acknowledged by our regulator. The support from our nonprofit partners and peer funders underscores the positive impact of the Listen4Good project and reinforces our dedication to continuous learning and improvement through systematic listening.
Our Approach to Listening
1. Initiating a Learning Community of Nonprofits
Charles Schwab Bank recently partnered with Communities Foundation of Texas and United Way of Tarrant County to sponsor a cohort of five human services nonprofits in the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) area to participate in Listen4Good’s capacity building program and learning community. This approach fosters a shared environment where nonprofits can learn from each other, exchange best practices, and collaboratively solve problems.
The DFW Learning Community convened five times throughout the 18-month program, covering topics of survey design and collection, community feedback action, strategic planning data, and feedback system sustainability. As a funder sponsor, Charles Schwab Bank has also been able to gain new insights on community needs while developing deeper relationships with our grantees.
“The Listen4Good learning community offers a level of comfort and support between everyone in the cohort. It allows us to put down our shields and really open up to each other and get to the core of the issues…It has led to truthful and authentic conversations which are incredibly vital to enriching the lives of those whom we serve.” -Gina Norman, Housing Crisis Center, Learning Community Participant
2. Acting on Grantee Feedback to Improve Grantmaking
In addition to supporting nonprofits with capacity building to develop their feedback systems, Charles Schwab Bank, which has long collected client feedback in our business lines, has also begun implementing feedback practices in our grant program with our nonprofit funded partners. We actively seek feedback from our grantee organizations about our systems, initiatives, and strategies. The grantee feedback we receive helps us refine our approaches and ensures that our practices remain relevant, effective, and easy to navigate.
The combination of active listening, systematic feedback loops, and sharing this work with nonprofit leaders in the broader Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) community has been key for informing and shifting some of our work. While we are in the early stages of this journey, we are already seeing positive changes.
What’s next?
Partnerships like the one between Charles Schwab Bank and Listen4Good have the potential to reshape the asset-building landscape, transforming a value-centering community voice into meaningful action. This focus amplifies the impact of philanthropic efforts in transformative ways. At Charles Schwab Bank, we are committed to listening, learning, and adapting based on the insights of those we aim to serve. Our partnership with Listen4Good has not only helped us meet our CRA goals but also fostered a deeper connection with our community partners.
Introducing Listen4Good’s approach to our local funding community has been particularly rewarding–sparking powerful discussions with our peers about empowering through listening, and encouraging us to rethink how we ask questions and how we respond to feedback. As funders, we have the power to use our philanthropic strategies to address both root causes and symptoms of systemic inequity; Listen4Good provides a powerful tool for doing so by bringing to light the lived experiences of those we aim to serve into our strategic decision making.
We welcome the opportunity to partner with other local funders and support another Listen4Good Learning Community in 2025. Please get in touch if you’re interested in learning alongside our team and your grantees!
