Transforming Philanthropy by Rethinking Approaches & Improving Practices.
Embedding justice, diversity, and equity into the practice and process of philanthropy, Levain Partners provides purpose-built grant making support and promotes collaboration within and across organizations. Working with grant making organizations and associates with deep experience making change within philanthropy, Levain will partner with your foundation’s leadership and staff to infuse transformative values into every aspect of your grant making practice and process.
Levain’s Guiding Principles
Commitment to building justice, diversity, and equity into the practice and process of philanthropy.
Understanding that grant making is a means to an end and not an end in itself.
Conviction that the “what” and the “how” of grant making are inextricably linked.
Recognition that the most effective way of bringing new approaches to grant making is to tailor solutions to the unique attributes of each organization.
Realization that building integrated program and operations teams results leads to great impact and efficiency.
Appreciation of how training, learning, and reflective practice lead to better outcomes, sooner.
How Levain Can Help You Transform
Review and re-conceive grant making approaches, practices, processes & systems to advance mission and values.
Engage leadership, management and staff from assessment & development through roll-out & adoption to build shared vision for grant making.
Design processes & practices aligned with organizational mission and values that promise greater impact, adapting innovative ideas around the sector.
Accompany organization through change process, with focus on helping management & staff build skills and understanding needed to adopt new ways of working.
Align Programs and Operations
Generate mutual appreciation and understanding across program and operations teams through peer education programs.
Advise leadership in rethinking organizational and team structures to promote better and more efficient collaboration.
Facilitate cross-cutting work groups to identify chronic challenges and bottlenecks in grant making processes, then develop approaches to address root causes.
Foster a Culture of Learning
Train & coach new and established grant making staff, helping them understand the why and how of effective grant making within your institutional context.
Collaborate with seasoned grant makers to develop ongoing seminars and learning spaces to improve practice and share experience.
Support managers to better guide grant making staff in improving practices through ongoing capacity development and training reinforcement.
Our Clients
Levain's clients include the Ford Foundation, Pivotal Ventures, and Proteus Fund.
About Us
Tom Hilbink
I founded Levain Partners on the belief that the work and lessons learned from my time leading the Open Society Foundations’ Grant Making Support Group can help other foundations, regardless of size or focus, align their grant making practice and process with their values and become more effective. I bring to this work a broad and deep knowledge of the history of philanthropy in the US and around the world; gained through practice as a Program Officer and through study as a historian.
I have led and been part of diverse, global teams tasked with rethinking established practices that had become dysfunctional. Intense experience with change management means I’ve seen what can work or won’t. Strong emotional intelligence, people management skills, and a sense of humor have helped me through all of this.
I’m a creative teacher and tireless mentor able to successfully engage in diverse settings. I’ve taught in New York City public schools, public universities across the US, and in professional training settings from South Africa to Mongolia to Washington, DC. As a result, I’m adept at developing and delivering trainings to people “where they are” and have them respond with engagement and enthusiasm.
Joey Lee
For almost two decades, I've played diverse roles connecting frontline actors with platforms for resources and support across the human rights and social justice landscape, including as a legal advocate, a skills trainer and capacity builder, and a strategic grant maker. These perspectives inform my belief that trust-based partnerships with on-the-ground changemakers are essential to ensuring that philanthropy—in all its shapes and sizes—is effective, efficient, and equitable. I'm energized to collaborate with foundation partners on their continuing journeys to achieve impactful grant making through values-aligned practices and processes.
I'm also excited to imagine and build partner-centered funding practices to build sustainable pathways for leadership resilience across movement ecosystems. This includes a passion for helping funders to embrace leadership transitions as moments of opportunity for collective reflection, strategic transformation, and celebration of leaderful legacies and futures. I'm particularly energized to design robust tools to support emerging leaders with identities, backgrounds, and lived experiences that have been historically excluded from non-profit leadership.
Why “Levain”
French for “sourdough,” Levain Partners reflects our passion for baking. Taking pleasure in challenging work, we pay close attention to small but important differences in local conditions, enjoy engaging in deep analysis, and act with patience, commitment and a sense of humor. When everything works, the results are wonderful. But even the failures provide moments of insight (and great bread!).