Awarding Equitably: a process design framework for city grantmakers

Abstract

Internal processes such as hiring, procurement, and grantmaking are the hidden engine that power the delivery of local government services. My research begins with a case study on designing the City of Boston’s organization-wide grantmaking process to standardize procedures. This effort became a priority due to the influx of ARPA funding, among other drivers related to digital transformation and a new mayoral administration. Through interviews with grants program managers, I documented the steps in the grants process and codified shared best practices in a grants process user guide. This initial exercise was a mechanical one, which was limited as other considerations and values, namely equity, were integral to work but only implicitly embedded in grantmaking.

In my research to develop a more holistic process design framework, I discovered a gap in the literature on internally focused process design in public sector organizations. The process improvement discipline comes closest, but still lacks a systematic discussion of factors that influence process, including values, structures, norms, practices, and politics. In identifying these influences, I construct a framework that serves as an actionable toolkit for practitioners across government settings. I define five influences: philosophical values, organizational structures, cultural norms, operational practices, and political forces. For each, I outline definitions, principles, guiding questions, and complementary exercises. Then I apply the framework to analyze the Community Preservation Act (CPA), a Massachusetts-wide municipal grant program.

There are further opportunities to apply the “five influences” framework to other internal processes across organizational contexts in public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Most importantly, the framework application must be user-friendly and actionable, and thoughtfully integrated into internal operations.