Giving Compass' Take:

• Vu Le, writing for GuideStar by Candid, discusses how capacity building and support organizations are similar to the mycelium that provide nourishment for mushrooms. These organizations are vital for the nonprofit sector, even if they go largely unnoticed.

• How have you incorporated support for these organizations into your giving?

• Read about how these funders are focused on capacity building for social good.

We can liken direct service organizations to mushrooms, as they provide sustenance to a variety of plants and animals. They are vital because they feed the community. However, for mushrooms to flourish, the mycelium must be strong. This is the vast but mostly underground network of root-like tendrils. Mycelium is like an invisible tree, and the mushrooms you see are the visible fruit. The mycelium does many important things: Brings nourishment, clears out toxins, connects mushrooms to one another, creates symbiosis with other species, and decomposes and recycles nutrients, among other things.

Mycelium has often served as a metaphor for community, for the invisible connections that bind us in a vast network of humanity. It also serves as a great model for support organizations

Support organizations, like mycelium, are often invisible. And sometimes people wonder what the hell we do. On occasion, especially when funding is tight (because no one wants to fund capacity building or advocacy or whatever) we ourselves even ponder what the point of our existence is.

But we are vital to the nonprofit ecosystem because without support organizations, it will be challenging if not impossible for many direct service nonprofits to thrive. Mycelium thus provides our sector with a great guide on the role and functions of support organizations, and a gauge on whether we are effective at doing our jobs.

Read the full article about mycelium model for social sector by Vu Le at GuideStar by Candid.