Working Together: Local and National Funder Collaborations

Michael Brown

With all the collective impact efforts around the country, effective funder collaboration has become an essential ingredient for “moving the needle”.  

In response to the number of communities using collective impact to address the unmet needs of youth, the YTFG’s Multiple Pathways to Graduation Work Group is hosting a conversation for funders on Local and National Funders Working Together on Place-Based Initiatives next week  Tuesday, July 15th at 11:30 PT/ 12:30 MT/ 1:30 CT/ 2:30 ET facilitated by Michael Brown (The Seattle Foundation) and Yazeed Moore (C.S. Mott Foundation).  YTFG has worked hard to be a meaningful affinity group for both local and national foundations. However, we think there is more we can do to learn from each other about how to construct meaningful local/national partnerships that embraces the perspectives of both types of foundations.

The perspective of local/national funder collaborations is an interesting topic partially because it is one that is so ignored by the large national foundations and the field of philanthropy in general.  I’ve just been reading the EXCELLENT paper Lessons in Funder Collaboration: What the Packard Foundation Has Learned about Working with Other Funders which is chock-full of fascinating insights and valuable case studies.  Yet, they never deal directly with the dynamics that develop when one foundation is perceived to have more power or influence than the others nor how to structure collaborations to ensure that the smaller, more locally-based foundation partners can actually build capacity, strength and influence. The article High Stakes Donor Collaborations also fails to address the size/influence difference across foundations. I'm going to go back through my files to see if the topic is mentioned anywhere in articles on funder collaboration or perhaps GrantCraft will have something.

In reading both of these articles I also realized that there is a very big difference between those types of collaborations formed by program officers that are operating within their programmatic budget and those formed by top management. As we continue to build our knowledge about local/national funder collaboration, it may make sense to think about effective practices when the CEO is at the table as well as when it is a program officer who is trying to navigate their foundation’s processes and peculiarities.

Some of the questions we hope to explore in the upcoming phone call include:

• What do you wish national funders understood about your local grant making?
• What do you wish local funders understood about your national efforts?
• What's the right mix and schedule of local and national support?
• Should locals always try to match national funds?
• What particular knowledge does each group bring to the table?
• How can national funders be more aware of local conditions and best practices?
• How can locals learn more about what works in other communities/regions?
• When have we gotten it right? When have we not?