Dennis Arends is a senior analyst at the Effective Philanthropy Group, a unit that supports grant-making colleagues in their work on strategy, monitoring, evaluation, and learning. He is also leading the Porticus working group on meaningful participation, which is tasked with operationalizing the 10-year strategic goal on ensuring meaningful participation of people who are affected by poverty and exclusion in all Porticus-supported grants and programs. Throughout his professional career, including 15 years as UNICEF staff, 4 years as independent consultant and the past 2 years at a family foundation, he has been passionate about fighting inequality and promoting participatory development practices.