For many decades now, knowing that their ability to achieve their vision is only as strong as that of their organization partners, many foundations have been offering grantees capacity-building support as a complement to their primary grant. In recent years, there has been some important pushback, such as this piece by Marcus Littles, on the traditional forms that much of this capacity support has taken, and valuable reframing by Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, Community Wealth Partners and others about how it can more effectively center equity and trust-based philanthropic practices.
We welcome this reimagining, as we have certainly seen how funders have offered capacity-strengthening resources in ways that are more or less helpful to leaders and their organizations.
With that in mind, and in advance of the launch of our Thrive Advisory Service (Thrive), we have been getting the lay of the land for funder-supported capacity strengthening and what it can look like at its best, when rooted in trust and respect for organizations. Along with a literature review, our exploration has included conversations with the staff of eleven foundations who invest in the leadership and capacity of the organizations they fund. We also spoke with the leaders of eight “practitioner” organizations who have years of experience supporting foundations in delivering those resources and hearing from hundreds of leaders about what they need and want.
The interviewees are, like us, deep believers in the importance of capacity funding and the need for much more of it. Yet, they reminded us that many others in philanthropy remain unconvinced of its value and impact. Most notably, the majority of foundation interviewees — even those who have been making capacity grants for many years — still find themselves needing to make (or remake) the case for those grants to their own colleagues and to peers in the sector. Practitioner interviewees observed the same, and also shared their experiences of funder practices that still fall far short of the more trust-based and flexible approaches that the current moment calls for.
Because there are still relatively few funders who make significant capacity grants and other resources available for their grantees, a compelling case for such funding and its value and impact is clearly needed.
And because some foundation-funded capacity programs are still being experienced by organizations as something done to them rather than designed with them, it is important to outline what trust-based capacity strengthening at its best can look and feel like.
This blog series offers our perspective on both of these fronts. It is informed by our recent discussions with many valued colleagues (see acknowledgments below) and by the personal experience that we, Holly Delany Cole and Paula Morris, have garnered from many decades as grantmakers, designers of capacity supports, consultants and coaches to leaders, and as nonprofit staff and leaders ourselves.
Recognizing and building on existing research and models, our goal is to contribute another set of practical resources, frameworks and insights that we hope can add value for multiple audiences: funders who want to be as supportive as possible of their grantee partners; organizations that wish to think expansively about what capacity funding can help them achieve; and all of us who wish to see more dollars made available to our leaders, organizations and movements.
- Perspective Series #1: What Do We Mean By Trust-based Capacity Strengthening?
- Perspective Series #2: What Does Trust-based Capacity-Strengthening Funding Look and Feel Like?
- Perspective Series #3: What Forms Can Foundation-supported Capacity Strengthening Take?
- Perspective Series #4: What Is the Case for Capacity-Strengthening Funding and How Can it Best Be Made?
- Perspective Series # 5: Capacity Strengthening at the Systems Level.
About the Authors
Paula Morris & Holly Delany Cole
Paula and Holly are former directors of, and current advisors to, the Resilience Initiative and the Flexible Leadership Awards program of the Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund (now The LeadersTrust). They bring decades of experience in organizational leadership, development, philanthropic practice, and capacity-strengthening. Their full bios are here.
We want to acknowledge and thank the following individuals who contributed to the research on which this blog series is based: Kay Suarez & Niki Japal, Equity in the Center; Darlene Nipper & Bex Ahuja, Rockwood Leadership Institute; Elissa Sloane Perry & Aja Couchois Duncan, Change Elemental; Maura Bairley, Viveka Chen and Monica Dennis of co-LAB Collective LLC, Move to End Violence; Nikki Dinh & Ericka Stallings, Leadership Learning Community; Jeanne Bell, Just Org Design; Rusty Stahl, The Fund the People; Andre Oliver, James Irvine Foundation; Sarah Shanley Hope & Ena Coleman, The Solutions Project; Dalia Yeddida, Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative; Neesha Modi, Kresge Foundation; Jen Wei & Kathleen Badejo, Hewlett Foundation; Erin Frederick & Demetria Smith, Zilber Family Foundation; Jean Ries & Marissa Guerrero, David and Lucile Packard Foundation; Kathy Reich & Shireen Zaman, Ford Foundation; Judy Wright & Trishala Deb, Collaborative for Gender and Reproductive Equity; Karen Cunningham, Inatai Foundation; and Molly Smith, Pivotal Ventures.