Funder transparency in action: Why The Kresge Foundation values its Candid profile

For several years in a row, The Kresge Foundation has earned a Candid Seal of Transparency by publishing information about our organization on our Candid profile, just as hundreds of thousands of nonprofit organizations maintain their own profiles.

As a grantmaker, this sends a powerful message. Maintaining a Candid profile enables our grantmaking team to keep our philanthropic ideals—transparency, equity, and community—centered in our day-to-day work.

While we all have demands on our time, we’ve found that the benefits of keeping our Candid profile up to date far outweighs the few resources it requires.

Talking the talk and walking the walk of funder transparency

At Kresge, we use Candid profiles to verify data about grantee partners and hope nonprofits will keep their data updated to provide insights into their work. When we access their profiles, which contain financial data, mission and program details, leadership information, and in many cases their team demographics, it helps us see our grantees in a different light as we review grant applications. It adds another dimension to their work by not only allowing us to verify information they’ve provided but also painting a picture of those behind the organization. It further helps us answer the question: “Who is this organization?”

Transparency moves our sector forward because we can be more impactful when we know more about the organizations with which we’re partnering, such as their priorities, programs, outcomes, and effectiveness. So, if we’re requesting a glimpse into the operations of the nonprofits we work with, we believe it’s only fair to afford them the same benefit by providing the same glimpse into our operations.

This two-way street of transparency speaks directly to the values that guide our mission to advance equity and expand opportunity in American cities—creativity, equity, opportunity, partnership, respect, and stewardship. 

Maintaining a current and accurate profile is an ideal way to keep our values centered in our grantmaking work. By sharing and receiving information equitably, we’re building partnerships and offering creative opportunities that are built on mutual respect. We’re also able to make decisions that further demonstrate integrity, humility, excellence, and responsibility in carefully stewarding our foundation’s resources.

Prioritizing a one-stop shop for the health of philanthropy

More practically, a database is only useful if the information it contains is current and accessible. Maintaining a Candid profile as a funder is the right thing to do, for it helps ensure that it remains a reliable resource for the sector.

Grantmaking is interesting and can be challenging as well as rewarding in the best of times, let alone in the current environment. We have so many other forces competing for our attention and time. When it comes to launching partnerships with grantees, we all know that fulfilling compliance obligations takes time and effort. Enabling nonprofits to share current, reliable information in one place—instead of in multiple discrete platforms, over and over again—lessens the burden both for those who are sharing information and those who are gathering it, allowing everyone involved to spend more time doing mission-driven work.

Enabling trust-based philanthropy through funder transparency

At Kresge, we embrace trust-based grantmaking as an extension of our commitment to equity and justice. Acknowledging the expertise of community partners who understand local needs best, we want to play a role in shifting power dynamics and reducing administrative burdens for grantee partners. For any grantmaker attempting to build relationships based on trust, transparency helps form the backbone of this approach. Transparent grantmaker profiles are just one step on that journey. Actively providing transparent, up-to-date information in a Candid profile is one way to demonstrate our openness to trust-based relationships.

Moving forward with funder transparency

Transparency is critical to how we make an impact throughout our philanthropic community and support the nonprofits that move the world forward. If we’re holding our grantee partners accountable, demonstrating the same accountability by maintaining a Candid profile proves we’re willing to engage with them on equal terms. Remaining active on the transparency-focused platforms that our sector uses to further our work also adds credibility to the tools—and encourages grantee partners to participate as well.

At Kresge, expanding equity and opportunity in American cities is our north star, and the behaviors that activate our values are what move us forward. Ensuring funder transparency by maintaining a Candid profile is one way we put that in action.