Giving Compass' Take:

• International foundations have the choice on whether or not to implement donor collaboration strategies that will help advance development work. But they still have the choice to 'DIY' or involve collaborators. 

• How can collaboration strengthen projects and effectiveness? How can it also hinder progress? 

• Read about the collaborative mindset for scaling social change. 

From the US Presidential elections, to Brexit and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the choice between going it alone or working collaboratively with other actors appears to be one of the dominant strategic issues of 2016. Perhaps unsurprisingly, international foundations too, face this strategic choice of the moment.

For the most part, international foundations are founded by ambitious individuals or corporations, most of whom have accumulated significant wealth. Combining this wealth with a compelling passion to address social or environmental issues, foundations are often vehicles for realizing the ambitions of their founders.

But what is happening in the world of foundations today — and what choices are they making between DIY and collaboration?

A number of trends are consistently affecting foundations in their international work.

Long perceived as ‘ATMs’ in the development arena, foundations are keen to play an enhanced role within the development system. The explicit call for partnership within the SDGs (Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals) and the UN’s recognition that foundations work locally and internationally with small and large non-profits and others to address a wide range of issues is strongly welcomed by the foundation community.

Donor collaborations allow individual donors, foundations or government agencies to access partners’ expertise, gain sufficient ‘voice’ to pursue high-level changes, leverage capital for larger scale and allow partners to take on big agendas, tougher issues, and longer-term challenges.

Well-executed collaborations are bigger than the sum of their parts; they magnify each partner’s contribution collectively yielding results well beyond the reach of single donors.

In the end, any decision to collaborate will be strongly influenced by a deep alignment of interests. In particular, human trafficking — more engagingly labeled modern slavery — was highest on the agenda.

Read the full article about collaborations from With and For Girls at Medium