ResultsLab: Funding Shifts to Better Serve Our Communities

Dear Reader,

How have funders focus, energy and interests (and therefore resources and grants) shifted recently? This came up in a conversation I had with a partner who provides financial management capacity building to nonprofits, RevGen. It’s been a topic that has stayed top of mind through conversations with other partners and through our own engagement with foundation clients. As we emerge from the pandemic, a few trends come to light about how the social sector is shifting and strengthening:

There is an increased interest from funders to understand the extent to which their giving practices are inclusive and equitable to meet the needs of their grantees and those they serve.
Foundations and corporations observed challenges to nonprofit organizational sustainability during the pandemic and see a need for efforts that provide capacity building to ensure high quality solution design and organizational/network strengthening.
While there is a recognized need for capacity building, these initiatives are typically broad and light-touch with the expectations that transformational change is going to happen. Funders are starting see this gap and provide opportunities for deeper skill building and organizational change in a way that actually meets nonprofit organizational needs.
Foundations are moving to opt-in models for capacity building in which nonprofits can select the area of organizational capacity they want to strengthen, if any. These cohort opportunities include focus areas such as financial management, marketing, and our focus - impact management.

We’ve seen each of these show up several times in projects that we are working on with our clients. For example, the National Western Center and 13 other local food and agriculture-based organizations joined forces to form the Colorado Farm & Food Systems Response Team to contribute to an emergency response fund to support local farmers and ranchers impacted by the pandemic. The Response Team provided flexible funding and quick administration to meet the emergent needs of grantees, which in turn allowed grantees to quickly serve the communities most impacted by COVID-19.

Rose Community Foundation is another client where we’ve seen deeper capacity building opportunities for its grantees using an opt-in model. In response to many grantees’ desire to strengthen their internal learning, measurement, and impact practices – and recognizing the importance of building capacity in these areas to strengthen their impact in their communities – the Foundation has offered optional capacity building opportunities to grantees during the grant period.

Other cohorts we've supported, funded by philanthropic and corporate funders focused on capacity building and network strengthening, include Uncharted’s Visible Connect and Reach for the Upside. Both initiatives used a model to provide funding and coaching to a cohort of start-up organizations to build their capacity to grow and achieve meaningful impact, while building networks where these organizations could collaborate and learn from each other.

As we are in the business to support organizations to deepen their practices to drive further impact, we are excited to see these trends and to work with organizations taking the initiative to drive this change. We also know that in order to advance social change and support vulnerable populations these trends must stay. We all must work hard to ensure this shift continues and becomes a new reality for the social sector.

If you are committed to continuing the journey to support organizational strengthening in the social sector, let’s connect and see how we can partner together. If you are a nonprofit ready to join a network of organizations leading the way in impact management, join our waitlist for Impact Accelerators launching this fall.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

[INPUT NEEDED] We'd love to get your feedback on a new service concept that will be designed for individuals who want to advance their skill set to drive data-informed decision-making within organizations. Join us for a 60-minute session and receive a $35 gift card for your participation

Focus Group for Nonprofit Leaders: Share your experience in building an organizational culture of continuous improvement and what works best for creating growth and development opportunities for your teams. Date: Wednesday, June 23 at 12:30pm MST
Focus Group for Nonprofit Frontline Staff, Evaluation and Program Managers: Share your experience working within a nonprofit organization and what draws you to professional development opportunities around making data-informed decisions. Date: Wednesday, June 30 at 9:00am MST
Focus Group for Independent Consultants in the Data and Evaluation Field: Share your experience consulting with nonprofits and social good organizations and what it takes to build the knowledge base to become a recognized expert in the field of data and evaluation. Date: Thursday, June 24 at 12:00pm MST
Focus Group for Students: Share your experience learning about the social sector and what skills and experience you hope to gain in the workplace and how you hope to continue your learning journey. Date: Tuesday, June 29 at 11:00am MST

We are hiring! Apply today or help us spread the word if someone you know might be a good fit for any of the following positions: