Some funder networks help philanthropists find new ways to act and give in concert. There are literally hundreds of efforts across the U.S. that help participating grantmakers to pool funds, develop joint strategies, and collaborate to achieve outcomes that they wouldn’t be able to manage on their own.
One of the best overviews of the various issues in and approaches to funder collaboration is Moving Ideas and Money: Issues and Opportunities in Funder Funding Collaboration, written by Ralph Hamilton, co-director of the Program on Philanthropy and Community Change at the University of Chicago’s Chapin Hall Center for Children. In the 2002 piece, undertaken for the Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities, Hamilton highlights the range of strategies, challenges, and benefits related to funder collaboration.
A few examples of funder collaborations include:
The Funders’ Collaborative for Strong Latino Communities launched by Hispanics in Philanthropy in 2002 is a $16.5 million grantmaking initiative consisting of more than 119 local, national, and transnational funders and corporations in 15 sites across the U.S. and Latin America. The Funders’ Collaborative provides grants to small-to-medium-size Latino nonprofit organizations in an effort to develop the infrastructure of the Latino nonprofit sector and cultivate the next generation of Latino philanthropic leadership. The HIP collaborative was also featured in a GBN-produced story developed by Andy Goodman.
Los Angeles Urban Funders (LAUF) is a collaboration of more than 30 local and regional funders  that aims to build community capacity in three Los Angeles neighborhoods. LAUF was launched after the civil unrest of 1992 and is housed at Southern California Grantmakers. The collaborative uses a bi-model funding structure: its pooled fund supports the core operating costs of the collaborative strategy in each neighborhood,while its alignment approach encourages funders to make independent grants to the neighborhoods within the context of the agreed upon outcomes, based on each foundation’s individual interests and expertise.
The Quality Childcare Initiative (QCCI) was launched in 1997 out of discussions among key program staff from more than 30 San Francisco-area foundations. QCCI aims to illuminate critical issues in child care, to increase the knowledge base of various sectors of the child care community, to develop new partnerships between the philanthropic and government sectors, and to form a child care response that addresses regional and local needs. The group raised more than $4 million dollars in its first five years and has awarded more than 80 grants to area nonprofits.
The Fund for Our Economic Future , a collaboration of 60 individual and institutional funders, was launched in 2004 to raise $30 million over a three-year period to encourage and advance a joint regional economic development agenda for Northeastern Ohio.
|
