Foundations and their grantees wanting to achieve lasting change that benefits people across large populations should work with an “open source” mind-set, where information is shared across all members of a collaborative funding effort, according to a new report.
The report, written by Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, sheds light on how foundations work together to spark “systems change,” an idea that has emerged as a dominant theme in large-scale philanthropy. The report comes as many high-level leaders, including international government officials, philanthropists, and corporate executives, gather this week in New York for the annual United Nations General Assembly.
The report follows up on a 2017 paper that suggested foundations should provide more unrestricted, multiyear grants so nonprofits don’t have to concentrate so much on raising money and can make decisions on the fly about how best to spend their grants.
This year’s update suggests foundations double down on those efforts, invest in developing new leaders, and create a more structured network for donors to learn about big, collaborative efforts.
Often grant makers want to get involved with efforts that make widespread changes but don’t know where to find potential partners, said Edwin Ou, director of funder alliances at the Skoll Foundation and a member of the report’s steering committee.
“The goal is to try to stimulate more philanthropies to recognize there are transformative solutions out there,” he said.
Fixing Big Problems
Since last year’s report, the idea that foundations should support systems change has taken root among some of the wealthiest, most connected philanthropists. Some of them, like Bill and Melinda Gates, will be hosting events in New York this week.
In November, the couple and several other billionaires, including Jeff Skoll, announced a $500 million commitment to an effort called Co-Impact. An outgrowth of the Giving Pledge, a commitment by 184 of the world’s superwealthy individuals and couples to donate the majority of their fortune, Co-Impact seeks to concentrate resources on a few vexing social problems. The plan is to use their large funding commitments to attract and encourage other philanthropists, government and nonprofit leaders, academics, and corporations to work together to find lasting solutions to problems.
Another effort, the Audacious Project, last April gave grants totaling $250 million to five organizations working to make dramatic social and environmental changes.
The concept of systems change has been around for decades, Ou said. But as it has surfaced more recently as a philanthropy buzzword, it lacks an agreed-upon definition.
The report supplies one. Organizations working on systems change seek long-term fixes by “influencing public policy and practice, changing norms and behaviors, shifting market and investment practices, and introducing new technologies to solve problems.”
Lessons From Tobacco
The Plastics Solutions Fund embodies many of those approaches, according to the study. Originally supported by the Marisla and Oak foundations, the group now has 10 partners. The fund worked with more than 50 nonprofits to develop a strategy to change the practices of large companies that use a lot of plastic and to help cities deal with plastic waste. Taking a cue from anti-tobacco activists that helped sour the public on smoking, the collaborative also works to alter attitudes about plastics used in everyday life.
Skoll’s Ou said pooled funds can make life easier for both grant applicants who benefit from a more efficient process and foundations seeking partners with expertise they lack in a subject. A healthy collaboration, he said, works only when foundations and grantees trust and communicate with each other. Acting in this way, he said, can “build and accrue a base of intelligence” that informs decisions.
Combining efforts will yield big returns only if foundations and grantees use that intelligence to develop common methods for evaluating progress; emphasize dialogue among grant makers, their grantees, and the communities they serve; and identify and support emerging leaders.
“Not only can we magnify opportunities,” Ou said. “If not done well, we can magnify the challenges.”
