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Many of us will have heard the phrase “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together”. Humans are naturally inclined to collaborate – it’s innate to us. Our success as a species is at least partially due to our ability to communicate and collaborate. This is as true in the philanthropic sector as elsewhere.
For donors, especially those just starting out, collective giving has many benefits. There are many charitable causes in this world, and even more charities to support them – navigating this space alone can be daunting. Collective giving provides an opportunity to learn from others, often passionate individuals of diverse backgrounds. Hopefully, these people can also help to challenge you. Effective philanthropy is hard to get right and shared decision-making can help to improve our effectiveness. This type of giving can also help to fund more innovative projects and research, which individual donors may not have the risk appetite to fund by themselves. Finally, as social creatures, we should never underestimate the power of a community.
This type of giving also adds value to nonprofits. Think of a nascent organisation who is making a high impact locally but may not have a large infrastructure. It is a game-changer to receive a single donation on behalf of a large group of donors, instead of many small donations from a number of different people – each of which necessitates additional administration, donor stewardship and reporting.
There are a number of different forms of collaboration in the sector. It is most often seen in the form of a giving circle, where a group of individuals come together, donate their money or time and decide how to allocate these resources to charitable organisations. EMpower – The Emerging Markets Foundation started out this way, when a group of emerging market finance professionals came together to give back to some of the countries they had built their careers in. Asia Philanthropy Circle of which I am a member is another example, it is a membership network for Asian philanthropists to jointly grow the impact of their philanthropy and to catalyse Asian philanthropy. AVPN, is another example, which has created a number of funds championing different causes for donors to work together on issues that are important to them.
Collaboratives are also becoming more institutionalised, and intermediaries are an important part of this ecosystem. Their role often involves strategically channelling resources from multiple donors to local nonprofits and community-based organisations. Recent Bridgespan research suggests these philanthropic collaboratives are particularly effective in the Global South, given local funders can lead with their lived experience and local knowledge, and local communities.
Yet, according to the 2022 State of Global Giving by U.S. Foundations report from Council on Foundations and Candid, just 13% of the global grant dollars awarded by US foundations between 2016 and 2019 went directly to groups based in the country where the work was carried out. Therefore, organisations like Co-Impact – a global collaborative of private sector partners, foundations and philanthropists pool funding for efforts to drive systems change in the sectors of health, education and economic opportunity, in Africa, Asia, and Latin America is a great example. The largest private foundation in the world, The Gates Foundation, also looks increasingly to collaborate with other funders at every opportunity possible to maximise their impact.
When we think about the challenges we face today, from climate change to inequality, they are too big to be addressed by any one individual or even sector alone, and collaboration between public, private and philanthropic capital is critical. The role of the philanthropic sector in these partnerships can be to convene and advocate as well as to fund innovation, research and test and shepherd new ideas that hopefully can be scaled up over time together with public and private capital. As an example, The 10 to 19 Dasra Adolescents Collaborative brings together civil society organisations, experts, funders and the government to address the scale and breadth of issues facing adolescents in India.
As with most worthwhile endeavours, collective giving is not always straightforward. Consider managing different personalities, and egos.
While not exhaustive, here are a few suggestions for more effective collaboratives:
- It is key to align on vision and direction, noting that some people will be at different stages of their maturity and have different levels of education around the key issues. Ideally partners should have a shared culture. If your goal in joining the collaborative is to be able to influence or change the behaviour of the other partners, it is unlikely to succeed – the vision of the collaborative should align with your own
- It is important to build trust (soft collaboration) in the process of moving to more action-oriented partnerships
- A successful strategy has been to have one funder or intermediary take the lead as the central coordinator. Oftentimes, this may involve establishing collaborative norms, common processes and ways to hold the group accountable – such as regular check-in calls or reports, and common KPIs to measure success, and sometimes there may also be a strong formal constitution and governance.
Despite the potential challenges, collective giving can be so much more impactful for both the donors and the organisations they support. As donors we are realising the transformative value of working together as peers – co-funding, sharing trends and data, and pushing for collective impact. And I look forward to seeing this trend continue over the next decade and beyond.
Check the other blogs from the series:
