Folly #34: Going it Alone

Funders join consortiums. Do nonprofits?

It’s common for foundations to join networks with other funders. I like Wikipedia’s definition of how that creates impact.

A consortium (pl consortiums or consortia) is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations, or governments (or any combination of these entities) with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for achieving a common goal.

In her interview with the Follies, Wendy Millet talked about consortia (having fun with acceptable plurals! #grammargeek) focused on sustainable agriculture, climate-friendly ag, land use and food justice – all issues related in some way to her work, and all focused on funders rather than nonprofits. The Council on Foundations has compiled a terrific list on others that focus on geography, topics and identity.

Recently, I had a fascinating conversation over lunch with a foundation executive director about this. (Fingers crossed for an upcoming interview!) Their grantmaking focus is very specific and her informal consortium of funders shares best practices and problem-solves on issues. One that’s come up may surprise you: shrinking grants from funders like them.

Her consortium’s concern is that the nonprofits that depend on them for support are getting fewer grants and not building revenue elsewhere. That’s scary. (And one of the reasons I teach how to grow individual donors.)

Moving Outside the Box

Why stay in our boxes when we can overlap and grow? (Gratitude to Viktor Forgacs for this Unsplash image.)

From a long ago role at The Nature Conservancy, I know of one nonprofit consortium that came about with a nudge from a donor. He said:

I support all these organizations doing similar work in a certain geography. Why can’t you work together?

And so they did.

When I search “nonprofit collaboration examples,” I get lists of nonprofit/corporate partnership, but no nonprofit-only consortiums. Strange.

So why do nonprofits prefer to go it alone? My guess is fear of donor poaching, which is just plain silly.

Funders Funding Collaboration

Grant applications provide absolutely zero incentive to apply in partnership with another nonprofit. In fact, they hinder it. What fundraiser in their right mind would manage all the coordination to gather another organization’s info when they’re putting in the hours to get their own proposal submitted on time?

So here are three things that funders could do to support nonprofit collaboration without too much additional investment:

1. Give larger grants to co-applicants doing complementary work, and make the proposal easy. Heck, start with an LOI. The idea of 2+2=5 will be appealing to nonprofits, especially if getting to 5 won’t take more work than asking for 2.

2. Fund training for groups of nonprofits to diversify income. I can’t count the number of proposals I’ve written for nonprofits to “diversify revenue streams,” but that still leaves the ball (and all the work) in the nonprofit’s court. Someone like me can teach it. And while you’re at it, ask your grantees if they need help hiring their first development staff and offer to pay the recruiter’s fee. It’s really hard to find good fundraising talent.

3. Share your research with nonprofits. Too often, foundations ask grantees to make the case, but you know this already. Share it! An earlier Folly had inspiring examples from funders who’ve moved to trust-based philanthropy.

If you are – or know – a funder that does these things or a nonprofit that does collaborative fundraising, please tell us with a comment below. And forward this Folly!