Field Scan of Equity Capacity-Building Practices Among Nonprofits and Philanthropy

A tool for equity-focused funders and nonprofits interested in building organizational capacity. 

Our Client: RWJF HCF

The Healthy Children and Families (HCF) theme at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) has provided equity-focused capacity-building to its grantees since 2017. 

HCF aims to identify a broad spectrum of equity-focused supports, ranging from immediate practical solutions to visionary aspirations within the capacity-building field. 

Learning From What Emerges:
The Field Scan Tool

Often the unanticipated outcomes in an initiative can be the catalyst for further innovation, but stakeholders need the time and space to share and reflect on what has come to light from different vantage points.

HCF enlisted the expertise of Public Profit and Corazón Catalysts, a firm specializing in equity-centered capacity-building and strategy consulting, to conduct a field scan. 

This field scan reviews health equity support models, similar models supported by other funders, approaches from adjacent fields, and community-rooted initiatives. The findings in the memo are distilled from these diverse sources, through the lens of several guiding questions. In addition, the field scan highlights common practices and critiques of equity capacity-building approaches.

Download the field scan tool here. 

Nonprofits can use the field scan to inform their own equity-focused capacity-building efforts.

Funders can use the field scan to better understand how to support grantees to build capacity for equity.