Grassroots Engagement: Assessing Our Role as a Funder and Ally 

As the field of philanthropy continues to deepen its understanding of the social determinants of health and broaden its practice to include upstream systems- and policy-change, there is a need to think outside of the box about the “how” and “who” of grantmaking. This has become even more true as racial injustice is being brought to the forefront of philanthropy’s attention. In 2015, the DentaQuest Partnership for Oral Health Advancement (DentaQuest Partnership) embarked on a five-year grantmaking strategy called the “Grassroots Engagement Initiative”. From this initiative, the impact in the communities that were engaged was as transformative as the impact on our organization.  

In this session, you’ll hear from DentaQuest Partnership staff and a grantee who was involved in the initiative as we discuss the process of bringing new voices into the national, state and local conversations on oral health systems change. Externally, there was a shift in the dialogue from being provider-focused and predominately about access to care to including a racial justice lens and an authentic consumer voice. Internally, the DentaQuest Partnership quickly became challenged to reassess our role as a funder, our understanding of community engagement, and our capacity to apply a racial justice lens. As the initiative culminated, we asked participating grassroots organizations to assess us, particularly our role as a funder and ally, throughout the 5 years.  

From this, we hope to offer opportunities to learn with us about what it means to rethink our roles, as grantmakers, in health equity and racial justice and how we can inform our work by those most impacted.