Application

“When we disagree about a decision made within the COO system—really, the county and Seattle Foundation. Being able to sit in the space with the folks who are having the issue and creating the environment where we can work things out without judgment has been really difficult. It's brought a lot of pain to some of the relationships that we've had. It is a real a real lesson in who has the power and who's unable to find their voice even within the power dynamics so I hope this hasn't impacted COO.” ―Community-based organization leader “We refer to the organizations that work with us as partners. But there is always going to be a power dynamic as we do hold the money. And while we worked with community to create the outcomes and the implementation plan and all that, we still decided what we want them to do.” ―King County staff “The power dynamics between funder and funded are inherently unequal. How honest can you really be when you depend on this person for $1,000. Not everybody even acknowledges that. COO, they're successful in calling out the weaknesses of this relationship and trying to really make it different.” ―Community-based organization leader Staff who are people of color feel caught up in the tension of being in government and seeing the bureaucratic side of what they have to do, while understanding a lot of the history with BIPOC communities, where there's not a lot of trust in it as it is. They know that complex and inequitable contracting definitely affects the organizations and the county’s relationships with them. Some staff perceive that there has been a change in how King County used to “serve a better purpose than the system that we currently have now.” They feel that a lot of decisions are made and then implemented without consideration for unintended consequences. “In the end, it’s the public that ends up suffering, because staff can take six months to do something and it will still be OK. We still have our jobs. We still get paid. Every two weeks. And no one cares at that point. But the problem is, if it affects our contractors and the communities that we serve.” ―King County staff

Application

There was agreement among the interview participants that COO’s approach to application creation, outreach and support, and review and selection is a set of best practices, one that other funding entities can replicate or adapt. King County staff and community partners all agree that COO has made deliberate efforts in designing more equitable RFPs, from the paperwork (“which has been more streamlined than in previous years”) to the review. Other areas of strength include: • offering technical assistance providers to help organizations apply for funds and understand the sometimes-inaccessible processes that the county has in place; • creating a set of evaluation criteria that allows agencies who are going to apply for a grant how they will be evaluated; • welcoming more options than a written proposal as an important part of the decision-making criteria. • inviting new and unusual partners into the conversation that aligned with the long-term sustainability strategy of the project