Resourcing Trust: How Power and Precarity Shape Nonprofit Funding Experiences

Nonprofits face challenges securing adequate and sustained funding, marked by resource constraints and power imbalances between funders and grantees. Using a constructivist grounded theory approach, we interviewed nonprofit leaders to examine funding relationships from grantees’ perspectives. Our study was situated in the Northern Canadian context, where nonprofits often operate in small, resource-constrained, and geographically dispersed communities. Drawing on Resource Dependency Theory, we interpreted how power and resource control shaped participants’ experiences. Four core themes emerged: community and relationship-centered practices, application and reporting make-work, transactional relationships and power, and operational and administrative support. We also explored the relevance of trust-based philanthropy (TBP), an emerging funding model with limited empirical attention. Our findings show alignment with and gaps in TBP practices, prompting development of an empirically grounded framework that extends understanding of nonprofit funding relationships and refines interpretations of TBP and resource dependence in constrained funding environments. From these findings, we offer practical guidance for more equitable funding systems.