FUNDER COLLABORATIVES

Active Arizona Funder Collaboratives

Educare Arizona

Each Educare center is a private-public collaboration that brings together a philanthropic leader or leaders to spearhead the capital campaign, a programmatic provider of Head Start and Early Head Start services to implement the core components of the Educare model, and a public school or district to provide land and other supports. Educare Arizona is supported by a collaboration of stakeholders and visionary leaders working together to ensure healthy development for all of Arizona's children. Learn more.

Homelessness and Hunger Funders Collaborative - 2013

Beginning in 2009, in response to the dire need in our community for emergency social services, a number of local funders began convening the Homelessness and Hunger Funders Collaborative. For the past four years, the goal of the Funders Collaborative has been to provide targeted financial support in an accelerated manner to key agencies, programs, and activities that concentrate on ending homelessness and hunger. Members of the Funders Collaborative provide significant contributions, and also work together to allocate the resources. This collaborative has raised and distributed over $5 million since it began.

In 2013, 12 Funder collaborative partners again joined forces to raise $750,000. Contributed funds were awarded to 16 direct-service agencies and will be used to provide food resources to address hunger, or to increase access to emergency shelter for people experiencing homelessness. Funded agencies will then able to enhance and expand their vital work in the community.

Neighborhood Development Collaborative - Place-Based Funding

The Phoenix Neighborhood Development Collaborative (PNDC) is a collaboration of private foundations, local corporations and government agencies who share a common purpose of improving economic and social conditions in Phoenix's low income neighborhoods. To learn more, click here.

The Summer Youth Program Fund (SYPF)

Founded in 2007, the Summer Youth Program Fund (SYPF) is a collaborative grantmaking effort among local funders who support, or are interested in supporting, agencies that provide summer programming for Maricopa County youth. The purpose of the SYPF is to supplement existing programs in order to enrich, enhance and expand summer programs for children and youth. The SYPF recognizes that summer programs, particularly those serving economically disadvantaged youth, require financial assistance to provide creative, educational and recreational outlets while fostering personal development and life-long learning. During out of school time, young people tend to disengage from learning and some may engage in the highest levels of health-harming behaviors. Targeted programs provide a continuum of care during the summer months and offer opportunities for youth to develop and sustain enriching and healthy lifestyles.

Since its beginning, SYPF has distributed nearly $3.7 million in support of summer programs. In 2013, 13 funders provided $617,000 to 53 nonprofit organizations reaching over 45,000 youth. The Arizona Community Foundation manages the funds and, along with the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust, administers grants and the grantee reporting process.

SYPF Partners
     ° Arizona Community Foundation
     ° Arizona Republic Charities
     ° BHHS Legacy Foundation
     ° Helios Education Foundation
     ° Hickey Family Foundation
     ° J.W. Kieckhefer Foundation
     ° Margaret T. Morris Foundation
     ° Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust
     ° Peoria Diamond Club
     ° Phoenix Suns Charities
     ° The Steele Foundation
     ° Thunderbird Charities
     ° Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust

The Arizona Cultural Data Project

The Arizona Cultural Data Project (Arizona CDP) is a powerful online management tool designed to strengthen arts and cultural organizations. Arts and cultural organizations enter financial, programmatic and operational data into a standardized online form and can then use the CDP to produce a variety of reports designed to help increase management capacity, identify strengths and challenges and inform decision-making. They can also generate reports to be included as part of the application processes to participating grantmakers. Learn more.

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Funder Collaboratives Across the Country

Accomplishing More by Working Together

The Summer 2012 issue of the Minnesota Council on Foundations Giving Forum focuses on collaboration and collective impact. When and how should we use these methods of working together to jointly attack our toughest social problems? And when do they simply require more effort and resources than the desired results merit? While conflicting opinions abound, consensus is growing about the benefits of collaboration. To create fundamental systems change, alliances are powerful. With time and effort, they can really move the needle on entrenched, complex challenges. Click here to read more.

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Council on Foundations and Donors Forum Symposium on Public-Philanthropic Partnerships: Examples of Collaboration and Leadership
The Donors Forum and Council on Foundations created this document that offers 12 examples of collaboration and leadership in the Chicago area. The collaboratives include:
     ° Child Development and Education - Foundation of Learning
     ° Climate Change - Chicago Climate Action Plan
     ° Workforce Development - Chicago LEADS (Leading Economic Advancement, Development, and Sustainability
     ° Teacher Preparation Reform - Chicago Teacher Pipeline Partnership
     ° 2010 Census - Count Me In
     ° Transformation of Food Production and Distribution - Fresh Taste
     ° Public Housing and Workforce Development - Opportunity Chicago
     ° Addressing the Foreclosure Crisis - Regional Homeownership Preservation Initiative (RHOPI)
     ° Water Quality and Ecosystem Restoration - Great Lakes Healing Our Waters Coalition
     ° Climate Change, Workforce Development, and Economic Development - Chicagoland Green Collar Jobs Initiative
     ° Public Housing Transformation - The Partnership for New Communities
     ° Arts Education - Chicago Arts Education Collaborative

Read more.

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Child Welfare Collaboratives

The Child Welfare Philanthropy Group- Donors Forum of Wisconsin
The Child Welfare Philanthropy Group (CWPG) was formed in response to concerns by funders and nonprofits for more transparency, accountability, advocacy and support of the various systems serving children and families. Since its inception in 2000, CWPG has funded projects addressing policy issues and needs in health, education, early childhood and workforce development. Read more.

Child Welfare Funders - San Diego Grantmakers
The Child Welfare Funders (CWF) has been meeting since 2006 to learn more about the child welfare system and issues facing the children and families it serves. Read more.

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Education Collaboratives

Chalkboard Project - Philanthropy Northwest (Oregon)
Launched in early 2004, the Chalkboard Project is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit organization with the goal of helping to unite Oregonians to make our K-12 public schools among the nation's best. Read more.

Education Initiative - Ohio Grantmakers Forum
OGF launched its education initiative in 2005 to help members become more effective education grantmakers by better understanding public education in the state. Read the reportBeyond Tinkering: Creating Real Opportunities for Today's Learners and for Generations of Ohioans to Come (PDF).

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Environmental Collaboratives

Michigan Family Foundations Join Together to Support Innovative Effort to Create “Climate Resilient Communities" - Council on Michigan Foundations
Taking steps to study and address both the current and future impact of climate change on local watersheds is a new and important way to deal with what some experts predict will be the nation’s – if not the world’s – most important environmental issue in the decades to come. Read more.

Environmental Funders Network - Maine Philanthropy Center
The Environmental Funders Network (EFN) is a joint program between the Maine Community Foundation and Maine Philanthropy Center that helps to sustain Maine's natural environment and strengthen its connection to Maine's people, communities, and quality of place. Read more.

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Healthy Eating and Agriculture Collaboratives

Fresh Taste - Donors Forum (Chicago)
Fresh Taste is a partnership born of learning, sharing, and the recognition of common interests by a group of foundations and the City of Chicago. Fresh Taste envisions a region in which diverse communities have access to healthy, affordable, sustainably produced, and fairly priced food. Read more.

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Homelessness Collaboratives

Homelessness Working Group - San Diego Grantmakers
Since 2003, the Homelessness Working Group (HWG) has focused on addressing the causes and solutions to homelessness in San Diego County. The purpose of HWG is to prevent and reduce homelessness throughout the county by enabling funders and other stakeholders to have greater impact through advocacy, collaboration and education. Read more.

Denver's Road Home Funder Collaborative - Colorado Association of Funders
The Denver's Road Home Funder Collaborative is a network of more than 20 foundations and corporations in Colorado that have co-invested in the Denver's Road Home Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness. Activities include:
     ° Knowledge sharing
     ° Co-investment on housing first programs in the metro Denver area
     ° Support the implementation of Denver's plan to end homelessness by 2015

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Human Services and Healthcare Collaboratives

Strategic Restructuring of Human Services Nonprofits - Ohio Grantmakers Forum
The Human Services Strategic Restructuring Pilot Project in Cuyahoga County brought together a group of 18 grantmaker organizations motivated by a common desire to offer struggling nonprofits with support "beyond a grant check." Read the summary report The Human Services Strategic Restructuring Pilot Project: Transforming Nonprofits in Cuyahoga County, Ohio (PDF).

OGF Members Form Coalition to Help State Implement ACA - Ohio Grantmakers Forum
To aid foundations active or interested in health reform-related grantmaking, understand the new law and explore collaboration on implementation, the Saint Luke's Foundation and The George Gund Foundation joined forces to convene with funders from around the state. Read more.

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Neighborhood Collaboratives

Baltimore Neighborhood Collaborative - Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers
Since 1996, the Baltimore Neighborhood Collaborative (BNC) has invested over $7,000,000 through grantmaking and other activities to support the revitalization of Baltimore neighborhoods. Click here to read the tenth anniversary report.

Neighborhood Funders Collaborative - San Diego Grantmakers
In 2001, several members of San Diego Grantmakers interested in pursuing place-based funding formed the San Diego Neighborhood Funders (SDNF) collaboration. They decided to focus their work in the Diamond community, an area comprised of 10 neighborhoods in southeast San Diego that has among the lowest average household income and for decades lacked sustainable private sector investment. Read more.

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Parolee Assistance Collaboratives

Coming Home to Stay - San Diego Grantmakers
In 2006, several San Diego Grantmakers members formed a learning group that spent more than a year working with law enforcement and corrections officials to research prisoner rehabilitation and reentry. The group decided to focus their efforts in City Heights and the Diamond, and dubbed the effort “Coming Home to Stay” (CHTS). Read more.

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Public Policy/Advocacy Collaboratives

Facing Our Future - Council of New Jersey Grantmakers
New Jersey government at all levels – state, county, local and school districts – is in crisis. The way it raises and spends money cannot be sustained. These are key findings of an effort called Facing Our Future, which was coordinated by the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers and spearheaded by a Leadership Group composed of former government executives and public servants representing all sides of the political spectrum. Read more.

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Workforce Development Collaboratives

The National Fund for Workforce Solutions has a unique approach to workforce development. They provide grants to regional funder collaboratives that organize public-private partnerships to prepare workers and job seekers for careers and they do it with the deep involvement of employers. The model they've created is locally driven. To learn more about where the National Fund is working, click here.

Workforce Funders Collaborative - San Diego Grantmakers
The San Diego Workforce Funders Collaborative (SDWFC) was founded in 2006 as a public/private partnership of philanthropic foundations, employers, and public workforce development agencies to identify the region's workforce needs, create coordinated and financed solutions, and monitor regional success. Read more.

Milwaukee Area Workforce Funding Alliance (MAWFA) - Donors Forum of Wisconsin
MAWFA has supported over 2,500 individuals in training and services engaging over 120 employers that have aligned over $16 million annually with 25 public and private funders… Read more.

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Funder Collaborative Resources

Local Donor Collaboration: Lessons from Baltimore and Beyond - Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers

Maximizing Foundations Effectiveness: Is public policy advocacy an option for philanthropists? - Ohio Grantmakers Forum

Funder Collaborative Overview - Arizona Grantmakers Forum (pdf)

Lessons From a 10 Year Collaborative: A Case Study of the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa (pdf)

Effective Funder Collaborations (Video)

The Challenges of Collaboration: Recognizing and Addressing Potential Minefields (pdf)

Arizona Funder Collaboration Case Studies - 2005 Annual Philanthropy Conference (pdf)

Funder Collaboratives: Why and How Funders Work Together - GrantCraft

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