While the Walton Family Foundation's market-based approach to philanthropy has achieved great wins in its freshwater and marine conservation programs, its charter school-focused educational programs tend to overlook system-wide improvements that can benefit a broader community of underserved students, a report from the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy finds.

The latest report issued by NCRP's Philamplify initiative, Walton Family Foundation: How Can This Market-Oriented Grantmaker Advance Community-Led Solutions for Greater Equity? (52 pages, PDF), found that WFF is open to new ideas and community input but could do more to increase its transparency and responsiveness. The report also offers recommendations as to how the foundation can accomplish that, including continuing its generous funding practices while more explicitly prioritizing equity community engagement by, for example, working with parents, students, teachers, and education officials to identify ways to improve school performance.

"A market-based approach to philanthropy isn't necessarily antithetical to social justice, as long as communities are incorporated into the decision-making process," said researcher Gita Gulati-Partee. "Our research shows that the foundation is most successful when it takes community wants and needs into account, as shown by the foundation's success in engaging with commercial fisher-folk to discourage overfishing along the Gulf Coast."

"Overall, I have valued the learning opportunity presented through this process," said Buddy Philpot, executive director of Walton Family Foundation, in a written statement that also mentioned specific areas of disagreement with how NCRP conducted its assessment. "Much of what we do and how we interact with our grantees was affirmed, and we found several areas where we need to expand our work or improve upon current processes."