I recently travelled to Perth for the Scottish Grantmakers annual conference.
I’d been invited to talk about our learning from the Funders Collaborative Hub. I’d heard that there is lots of collaboration going on in Scotland – often quite informally – so I was equally interested in what I might learn from this diverse group of trusts and foundations.
Samantha Sloan from the WS Society has written a brilliant round-up of the conference as a whole but I wanted to share my own personal take-aways.
Funder collaboration is not new
Although the Funders Collaborative Hub is a relatively recent initiative – piloted in 2020 and launched in its current form in December 2021 – collaboration between grant-makers is certainly nothing new. Collaboration has always been part of the toolbox that many funders use to pursue their missions.
This point was illustrated by Maureen McGinn, President of SCVO and the conference’s keynote speaker, who reflected on her experiences in grant-making since the mid-2000s. Maureen referred to a 2006 pilot between BBC Children in Need, the Robertson Trust, the Rank Foundation and Laidlaw Youth Trust to join up their grant reporting. This pilot fed into a wider Harmonising Reporting programme led by Evaluation Support Scotland.
Streamlining and aligning application and reporting processes continues to be a hot topic amongst grant-makers and fundraising charities alike. For example, the Funders Collaborative Hub has recently been involved in discussions with Yorkshire Funders about developing a common application form. It made me reflect on the importance of the Hub making it easier for funders who are starting new collaborations to find and build on what others have done before. That includes sharing learning between funders in different parts of the UK.
Is collaboration worth it?
The topic I’d been invited to speak about was “Funder collaboration: is it worth it?” The examples Maureen had already shared – as well as the enthusiastic networking that been going on since the first morning coffees were poured – gave me optimism that the consensus in the room might be broadly “yes”.
I highlighted the benefits that grant-makers had seen from collaborating in their responses to the pandemic. It was this that originally inspired the creation of the Funders Collaborative Hub as a simple means of sharing and connecting with funder collaboration opportunities.
I spoke about how the Hub is learning what makes collaboration effective and sharing these insights through our collection of case studies and funder collaboration toolkit.
As the number of opportunities on the Hub has grown, we have started to analyse this unique data set to explore what issues funders are collaborating on and what benefits they are aiming to achieve by collaborating.
Frequently identified advantages of funder collaboration include improved co-ordination, efficiency, engaging with non-funders and tackling systemic issues. However, these potential benefits are set against some common challenges, such as funders lacking the capacity and flexibility to collaborate effectively, or managing the power dynamics that can exist within funder collaborations, just as they do between funders and other charities.
Whether the benefits of collaboration outweigh the challenges and costs ultimately depends on what you’re trying to achieve – it’s a means to an end. So I was excited to hear thoughts from some of the grant-makers in the room as we went into a break-out session to discuss: “What could you achieve by working with other funders, that you couldn’t do alone?”
Collaboration can increase the opportunities for strategic influence. I was interested to learn about some work in Scotland between charitable funders and local authorities.
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“Increasing our financial and intellectual horsepower”
Our break-out discussion generated lots of ideas and examples of how collaboration can, as one member of the group put it, “increase our financial and intellectual horsepower”.
It was suggested that smaller grant-makers in particular can benefit from being part of bigger projects – particularly where larger funders are able and willing to resource the administrative requirements of a collaboration.
Collaboration can also increase the opportunities for strategic influence. I was interested to learn about some work in Scotland between charitable funders and local authorities. The Gannochy Trust initiated the Strategic Youth Work Partnership with Perth and Kinross Council, sharing the costs 50:50. Now in its fourth year, this collaboration has contributed to local third sector youth work provision thriving and growing.
An important factor in this work's success has been that The Gannochy Trust are genuinely equal partners with the Council. This was vital when developing a joint decision-making process that would meet the distinct needs of a public sector body and a charitable grant-maker.
This led our group onto a wider discussion about aligning grant processes. It struck me that whether or not it ever results in a fully ‘harmonised’ system, simply by comparing their processes with each other, funders can benefit from a useful sense-check on whether all their existing due diligence is really adding value, or is just “how we have come to do things”.
Another aspect of grant-makers’ work that people identified as particularly benefiting from collaboration was ‘funder-plus’ activities. I heard about Inspiring Scotland, a venture philanthropy collaboration that provides intensive capacity building support alongside funding for high-impact charities. This model relies on investment at a certain scale, as well as access to business expertise, which is made possible by bringing together resources from individuals, companies and the Scottish Government as well as trusts and foundations.
A final reflection from the group was that funders often use their power to encourage charities to collaborate – so at very least should be asking “if it’s worth it for them, why not us too?”
Reaching more funders in Scotland
I was pleased to find that there was lots of interest from conference delegates in what the Funders Collaborative Hub has to offer.
Around two-thirds of the collaboration opportunities currently available on the Hub are potentially relevant to Scottish funders. Most of these opportunities are either international or UK-wide in scope. But with only a handful of current opportunities specific to Scotland, it’s clear that the Hub does not yet reflect the full breadth of Scotland’s collaborative funding ecosystem.
I’m determined to improve this. When we recently recruited for new members of the Hub’s Strategy Group, a priority was to increase our understanding of and engagement with more diverse funders, in terms of geography, size or funding source. I’m delighted that Elaine Wilson, Head of Learning and Development at the Corra Foundation, is joining the group, bringing a wealth of valuable insight on collaboration from a Scottish funder.
We’re going to need other Scottish grant-makers to play their part too. If you’re already involved in a collaboration – or are thinking about starting one – we want to hear from you. Whether you’re actively looking for other funders to work with, or simply have some learning that it would be useful for others to know about, get in touch to share what you’re working on.
Contact the Hub
If you'd like to find out more about how the Funders Collaborative Hub can help you share and connect with other funders, you can email us to arrange a chat.
