The platform that helps philanthropy act on Lived Experience.
Matter of Voice helps funders and grantees gather, pool, analyze, and apply Lived Experience at scale.
Collect stories at scale
Organizations share a link or QR code with community members who respond anonymously on their phone:
- In their own words, and in their own language
- In their own time
- Without creating an account
- Participants can see emerging themes right away - even before they submit
Benefits:
- Hear from people you often never hear from
- Surface perspectives on sensitive issues
- Make community storytelling reciprocal, not extractive
Organize stories for action
All stories are stored securely in a central-repository. They are automatically:
- Cleaned of identifying information and spam
- Grouped into themes in real-time
- Filterable by issue, location, demographics, and themes
- Securely stored in a central location
Benefits:
- Find relevant stories fast
- Compare themes across different population groups
- Auto-generate Lived Experience reports
March Matters used Matter of Voice to inform their campaign to drive record voter turnout
Share stories across partners
The platform has a suite of tools that strengthen collaboration and put Lived Experience at the center of everyday decisions:
- Team and partner management tools that make it easy to distribute prompts
- Auto-generated content for outreach messages (text, email, and social media)
- A hub-and-spoke model that allows multiple organizations to build a shared pool of stories
Benefits:
- Turn isolated stories into shared, reusable knowledge
- Share learning across organizations and roles
- Reduce duplicated community outreach efforts
- Center everyday decisions on Lived Experience
March Matters used Matter of Voice to inform their campaign to drive record voter turnout
Automate panel recruitment
Organizations can invite contributors to participate in optional paid advisory panels, which allows:
- Deeper dialogue
- Follow-up questions
- Ongoing learning without repeated extraction
Benefits:
- Build panels quickly
- Gather focused input from the right participants
- Build cumulative learning over time through ongoing participation
March Matters used Matter of Voice to inform their campaign to drive record voter turnout
How it's different
Before Matter of Voice
With Matter of Voice
How is this different from a shared folder or database of stories?
Matter of Voice is much more than just a way to centrally store community voice. It combines structured collection, permissions, automation, and analysis so community input can be reused, compared, and acted on rather than sitting in disconnected files.
Can we work with people who don't speak English as a first language?
Matter of Voice supports submissions in English, Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, and Arabic, with non-English submissions translated to English in the portal. More languages will be added over time - let us know if you have a request!
What makes our AI analysis tools better than generic analysis tools?
Our AI is designed for philanthropic use cases, focusing on themes, patterns, and learning rather than marketing or consumer behavior, and it operates within a closed system for safety.
For the first time, we had community input in one place that we could actually work with. The ability to see themes emerge across programs saved our team an enormous amount of time.
Who it's for
Leadership teams & boards
Strategy and resource decisions aligned to community priorities.
Strategy discussions became more grounded once we could point to lived experience. It changed how we discussed priorities.
Fundraisers & development
Community needs assessments that inform funding priorities.
Using real community voices strengthened our needs assessments and made our fundraising efforts so much more compelling.
Evaluation & Learning teams
Feedback loops that add context and reduce reporting burden.
For reporting - we now select some of the most relevant stories and send them to our funders. They find them more illuminating than the long reports we used to make.
Community Engagement teams
Scalable participation that reaches harder-to-reach groups.
We reached people we simply weren't hearing from before. Asynchronous and anonymous participation made a noticeable difference in who showed up.
Communications & Advocacy teams
Compelling Lived Experience stories aligned to key themes, for persuasive communications.
We no longer had to hunt for stories or worry about permissions. We could find relevant community voices quickly and use them responsibly.
Program leaders & service providers
More innovative, community-aligned program design.
Using lived experience early in program design helped us align our proposals more closely with community needs and avoid assumptions that would have limited impact.
Who internally should "own" the platform?
No one person needs to "own" it, because it does not rely on a single owner. The platform is designed to enable shared stewardship of community voice and to make all activities become more community-led. It also reduces the burden of collecting community input as it is collected once and used across teams, reducing repeated requests and time-intensive reporting.
How can Matter of Voice foster collaboration between functional teams?
By enabling different teams to work from the same Lived Experience input, teams can align around a common view of community challenges and hear input they may not normally be exposed to. At the same time, they have all the tools and filters to focus on what is most relevant to their role.
How do I share this with all of my partners and internal team members?
You can invite one key contact at each partner organization and allow them to invite their own team, or add internal team members and partners in bulk by populating the provided spreadsheet with their details.
Data safety
We treat Lived Experience stories with care, privacy, and respect, by:
- Automatic removal of personally identifiable information and spam
- Enterprise-grade security practices used by major financial organizations
- Customizable consent and permission language
How does PII elimination work?
Our system automatically scans submissions for personally identifiable information like names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses, and removes them before the content is visible to anyone. This protects both community members and your organization.
What if someone shares something harmful or inappropriate?
All submissions go through content moderation before being visible. Contributors are also informed upfront about what types of content are appropriate, and moderators can flag or remove content that violates community guidelines.
How do permissions work across partner organizations?
You control which partner organizations can see which input. Partners can only access input that has been explicitly shared with them, and contributors can indicate whether they want their input shared beyond the primary organization.
Is this HIPAA compliant?
Matter of Voice is not designed for collecting protected health information (PHI) and is not HIPAA compliant. Our PII elimination helps prevent accidental disclosure, but organizations should not use the platform to intentionally collect health data.
The automatic PII removal gave us confidence to scale community input collection without worrying about accidentally exposing someone's identity.
Plans & support
Designed to be accessible, easy to start, and simple to scale and maintain.
- Nine plan sizes based on issue areas and geographic reach
- Onboarding that takes minutes, not weeks
- No need for technical staff or dedicated administration
- Ongoing support through chatbot, email, and optional strategy sessions
- Ability to pilot without overcommitting
What factors determine pricing?
Pricing is based on organization size, expected number of submissions, number of partner organizations, and level of support needed. We work with you to find a structure that fits your budget and needs.
What kind of support is included?
All plans include implementation support, training for your team, ongoing technical support, and regular feature updates. We also offer optional strategic consulting for organizations that want help designing engagement strategies.
Can we start small and scale up?
Absolutely. Many organizations start with a pilot focused on a specific program or issue area, then expand based on results. We can adjust your plan as your needs grow.
Who we are
Matter of Voice was created by Upstream Thinking, an innovation consultancy that helps philanthropic leaders address complex community challenges using human-centered approaches. After decades working with foundations and nonprofits, we saw a consistent gap: Lived Experience was widely valued, but difficult to gather and use at scale.
Matter of Voice was designed specifically for philanthropy, informed by decades of experience helping organizations work with community voice. It makes it simple for funders and grantees to gather, share, and act on lived experience without specialized expertise.
