Advancing the Impact of Collaborative Funds

The social sector has experienced an explosion in the number and diversity of collaborative funds during the last 15 years across geographies and issue areas. This growth represents a significant shift in how philanthropic individuals and institutions organize and allocate capital for social impact, with many seeing collaboratives as a means to move quickly where urgent; to dilute risk; and to address neglected people, places, issues, and opportunities with large-scale funding.

This article series, sponsored by The Gates Foundation*, reflects on the impact of collaborative funds in regions such as Africa and India and on issue areas under pressure like global health and development. The stories highlight a range of approaches, as well as insights on how collaboratives can improve their intent and efficacy.

Now is the time to evaluate what’s working well—and what could work better. For example, how are funders learning from funding together? What are those they fund, their partners, experiencing as they work through a collaborative fund? How do collaboratives set standards for transparency and accountability, and navigate overlaps between funds and funders? Above all, how can the scale, agility, and velocity that collaborative funds provide best serve shared donor-partner goals?

In this series, practitioners, donors, and advisors engaged in collaborative funding will explore these and related questions, including what a decade of growth in collaborative funds has achieved and how the field might shape a next generation of funds to advance even greater positive change.

*Views presented in the articles are the authors’ own.