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GENDER ANALYSIS TOOLS
Some foundations use standard gender analysis tools to assist their grantmakers and grantees in the field. The documents listed here are examples of two common types, the interview protocol and the diversity table:
The ClearSighted tool, recently updated by Chicago Women in Philanthropy, is a set of questions - some simple, some more probing - designed to open up a conversation about gender with grantees. The original protocol, developed in 1996, has been adapted and customized by a number of other organizations.
The Agency Diversity form, a diversity table used by the Hyams Foundation helps grant makers and grantees understand how inclusive an organization is, in terms of both gender and race/ethnicity - and therefore where it might need to make changes in order to deliver on its objectives. The form is available as a downloadable spreadsheet.
The experience of grantmakers who have used these and similar tools suggests five "principles of practice," or ideas for making the best of a gender analysis tool:
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Use it to start gender analysis, not to substitute for it
Although many grantmakers use formal protocols or tools to start or organize the inquiry that is at the heart of gender analysis, they caution against letting tools substitute for that inquiry. If grantmakers use the tools mechanically, the result is often perfunctory discussion or, worse, a compliance activity in which grantees simply look to please grantmakers. "It's a basic, crude instrument," said one grantmaker about the diversity table used by his foundation, "but it helps me think." The goal is to explore important topics, not complete a checklist.
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Use it at grant-renewal time
Tools or protocols can generate findings or analyses that are useful in reviewing progress and commitments. In discussions about grant renewals, for example, grantmakers and grantees can look back at issues they identified earlier and see how they have played out. Did gender-appropriate program design or outreach efforts really seem to pay off? How? Did the organization make any progress toward enhancing the diversity of its workforce? If so, how? What's an appropriate next goal?
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Use it to signal commitment
Sometimes grantmakers introduce a tool early in their dialogue with grantees - but not because they want it front-and-center during discussions. Instead, it signals to grantees that gender analysis is an important institutional priority for the foundation, not just a personal interest of the grant maker. It can also ease defensiveness, if grant makers remind grantees that they have the same discussion with all grant seekers - and are familiar with the challenges that the tool often uncovers.
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Use it in your foundation
You may want to use these tools within your own foundation to organize reflection and learning. In staff development meetings, grant makers can share their experiences with and reactions to using the tool in the field, or review a "critical incident" in which things went particularly well or badly, or talk through the implications of including particular categories such as gender, race, sexual orientation, class, religion, and sometimes others) in the analysis. The ensuing discussion illuminates not just issues about the tool itself, but also reflections on how grantees approach gender equity and grantee-grantor interactions more generally.
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