Interview with Jose Muñoz: Relationship-based philanthropy, MacKenzie Scott and more

I had the privilege of interviewing Jose Muñoz, who is now the President of the Education Commission of the States. When we spoke, Jose was still in his role at the Institute for Educational Leadership where he was the President of the Coalition for Community Schools. 

Check out the interview here.

I consulted with the Institute for Educational Leadership in 2023, where I helped them with funder prospecting, grant writing, strategy development, and some sponsorship work. 

Jose and I started this conversation about the $6 million donation given to IEL by MacKenzie Scott in 2022. With so much buzz about Ms. Scott’s philanthropy, I wanted to know what it really feels like to land a donation of this size, completely unexpectedly. It’s one thing to write a grant for $6M, or receive a bequest of this size that you may or may not have known about, or has restrictions. But to receive $6M of unrestricted funding unexpectedly has to have a different effect. 

During the time I consulted with IEL, Jose and I bonded over the power of relationship-based fundraising, meaning taking your time to develop a relationship with the funder, knowing that it will ultimately result in deeper partnership and impact. From both of our experience, and now some preliminary research to back it up, we know that building relationships results in funders saying “yes” more often, funders renewing grants more regularly, and deeper relationships that can result in more dollars. In turn, generating more impact. We chat about some tips to it, why it’s worth it, and some results. 

Thank you Jose and IEL!

Here is the interview link one more time!