Nonprofits need skilled leaders, strong systems and the flexibility to continuously improve their work. As funders, we can play a key role in building the capacity of grantees, and we can offer this support in a number of different ways to boost nonprofit success. This piece offers an overview of how grantmakers can structure initiatives that seek to build grantee capacity.
Nonprofits need certain capacities in order to deliver results. These include things like strong leaders, financial management, technology and office space, as well as softer things like communications, adaptability and relationships.
Grantmaker refines evaluation model to enhance grantee and organizational accountability, while positioning it to inform and support decision-making.
How Should We Approach Capacity-Building Work?
Today, many grantmakers recognize the role of social movements in advancing opportunity, well-being and justice for all people. And more grantmakers are making a shift from solely supporting individual organizations and programs to supporting the multiple organizations and intersecting networks that make up movements.
In the nonprofit sector there are various forms of collaboration, ranging in formality, actors and purposes. Some of the most common types of collaboration include networks, coalitions, movements, strategic alliances, strategic co-funding, public private partnerships and collective impact initiatives.
Grantmakers can take a number of steps to ensure that the support we provide to grantees, and the policies and procedures connected to that support, enables nonprofits to effectively fulfill their missions. The goal, as described by Clara Miller, formerly of Nonprofit Finance Fund, should be to “create an enterprise that can reliably attract revenue and deliver quality program over the long term.”
This special supplement was created to capture the latest thinking about how nonprofit organizations, grantmakers, public funders and social entrepreneurs can increase the impact of successful solutions to urgent social challenges.
There is not one “right way” to provide capacity-building support because each leader and organization is unique and circumstances are always changing. Grantmakers should keep “The Three Cs” in mind when providing capacity-building support: make it contextual, continuous and collective.
This guide presents the benefits and challenges of partnerships between local and national funders, and highlights key considerations for both kinds of funders to foster success in their collaboration.
GEO has prepared a publication that provides a framework for understanding the array of roles that funders can play in supporting movements and networks.
Investing for Impact: Building the Capacity and Infrastructure of High-Performing Nonprofits