This year, the Association of Charitable Foundations (ACF) published its 2023-27 strategy, which sets out a vision of ‘diverse, vibrant, and effective foundations, working together for social good’.
The Funders Collaborative Hub, hosted by ACF, helped to inform this strategy by deepening our understanding of how ‘working together’ can contribute to foundations being more ‘diverse, vibrant and effective’ – and ultimately producing more social good.
Stronger Foundations is ACF’s framework for helping grant-making foundations identify and pursue excellent practice. It sets out 40 ‘pillars of practice’ across six thematic reports.
In my last blog I looked at some of the ways that collaboration is strengthening funders’ practice on three of these themes: strategy and governance; transparency and engagement; and funding practices.
Now let’s explore the role of collaboration in the remaining themes: diversity, equity and inclusion; investment; and impact and learning.
Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)
“A Stronger Foundation collaborates with others to promote and implement DEI practices” (Pillar 9, Stronger Foundations DEI report)
This Stronger Foundations pillar notes that while there is much that foundations can do individually to pursue DEI, “a collective effort is required to achieve greater impact and lasting structural change”.
This is an area which has seen increased activity by foundations in recent years. When ACF first published its DEI report in 2019, it found that “there are some collaborative efforts to achieve aspects of DEI in foundation practice, but in general these are small scale or in their early stages".
We can see from the Funders Collaborative Hub how this is changing, with a growing number of both well-established and emerging DEI-focused collaborations.
The DEI Data Standard was created by a group of funders who believe that “without an effective framework to capture DEI data, there can be no effective action to identify and target funding to address structural inequalities”. The data standard is hosted on the Hub, where it has been accessed more than 5,000 times in the last year.
The DEI Coalition was a learning and action community of funders who, over two years, built a body of practice that is available on the Hub for the whole sector to benefit from. The coalition’s founder, Fozia Irfan, says: “My hope is that other foundations will also be inspired to prioritise this work and see it as essential in ensuring we are effective funders, our grant-making reaches those most in need and we model the values and inclusion we expect from the sector.”
By using the ‘Issue’ filter on the Hub's search page, it is possible to explore all collaboration opportunities relating to Diversity, equity and inclusion as well as to specific aspects of DEI such as Racial justice, LGBTQ+ communities and Deaf and disabled people.
Foundations can work towards these pillars by learning from their peers (in the foundation sector and beyond) and by acting collaboratively to achieve common aims.
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Investment
The UK’s largest 300 foundations own assets worth £87bn. Decisions about how they invest this capital play a huge part in the pursuit of their charitable missions.
Whether a foundation makes social investments or mainly uses its endowment to generate income to fund its grant-making, the Stronger Foundations Investment Report highlights the importance of connection and collaboration.
A Stronger Foundation “actively seeks a variety of research and views to inform its approach to investment” (Pillar 5) and “seeks to positively influence the behaviour of others in relation to investments” (Pillar 7).
Foundations can work towards these pillars by learning from their peers (in the foundation sector and beyond) and by acting collaboratively to achieve common aims.
The Charities Responsible Investment Network is a vehicle for collaboration by foundations who want to engage with other charitable investors, as well as investment managers and policymakers, on a range of environmental, social and governance issues.
The Hub also features several collaborations focused on social investment, including the Social Impact Investors Group hosted by ACF.
As foundations seek to rise to the challenges of our time, engaging with the climate crisis is a key area of focus for many. Another ACF-led initiative, the Funder Commitment on Climate Change, is helping its more than 100 signatories to consider climate change in their investment strategies.
Impact and learning
“A Stronger Foundation thinks collaboratively to pursue impact and advance its learning” (Pillar 7, Stronger Foundations Impact and Learning Report)
This pillar of Stronger Foundation practice explores some of the ways that funders can share their knowledge, processes and capacity with others to enhance collective impact and reduce duplication.
Peer learning is a focus for many of the collaborations shared on the Hub. There are also examples of funders undertaking joint research to inform their work.
A group of funders in Buckinghamshire worked together to develop an open-access platform for sharing data and insights on local needs. Leona Forsyth, Senior Grants Manager at the Rothschild Foundation, told us, “It’s only by collaborating with very different funders… that we’ve been able to bring together such a wealth of data and identify how we can use it to make the biggest impact.”
In Scotland, a funder evaluation and learning group provides a space for sharing knowledge, practice and peer support. As Elaine Wilson, Head of Learning and Development at the Corra Foundation says: “People in learning and evaluation roles have a unique position within funders… Having access to a group of peers who can provide guidance and reassurance helps a lot.”
Helping funders achieve more together
The Stronger Foundations cross-cutting themes report notes that “thinking and acting collaboratively, a stronger foundation considers its effectiveness and added value alongside other funders and uses this understanding to strengthen its contribution, with collective efforts often leading to impact greater than the sum of its parts.”
It’s clear from the wide-ranging collaborations on the Funders Collaborative Hub that working together (both within and beyond the foundation sector) can help funders to strengthen their practices in pursuit of social good.
If you want to explore any areas of potential collaboration, you can use the Hub to let other funders know what you’re interested in – just fill in this form to add a collaboration opportunity, or get in touch with us to discuss your ideas.
Add a collaboration opportunity
Tell us about an existing collaboration or emerging opportunity, and make new connections with other funders who share your interests.
