Giving Compass' Take:

• To address the current pandemic, here are five ways to leverage networks to encourage collective philanthropic impact in Asia.

• What are the barriers to unleashing collective impact in Asia? Can U.S. networks learn from any of these strategies? 

•  Learn more about collaboration and Asia's collective power.


Whether I am speaking with a small social purpose organisation just embarking on its impact journey or leaders of long-established foundations, we always circle back to the same conundrum: how do we allocate limited resources, like philanthropic capital, most effectively so that we do not compromise on one choice over another? Especially, as making a choice often means to allocate to some in lieu of others.

In Asia’s social sector, these choices often need to be made in environments where institutional voids are prevalent and philanthropists and philanthropic organisations work without clear government directions or national development frameworks. Additionally, as I reflected in “Philanthropy Networks: Creative Value, Voice and Collective Impact”, the majority of current philanthropic initiatives in Asia are started by first generation wealth holders and they themselves rarely have an established approach to family giving at scale or formalised relationships with other organisations and stakeholders.

Yet, Asia’s philanthropic sector has accelerated at scale over the last decade. As Asia’s largest funders’ network, AVPN has witnessed unique ways in which philanthropic organisations have found synergies with members beyond their ordinary field of expertise. In fact, the philanthropic response to the COVID-19 emergency has demonstrated yet again its capacity to catalyse systemic impact across the region.

At the heart of this success, I believe, is the sector’s ability to form strong communities who jointly address pressing social issues by pooling their collective capital. After fostering multistakeholder initiatives for the last decade, I want to share with you 5 insights we have drawn on how we can leverage the power of networks to foster collective impact.

  1. Know your strategy – but be flexible on how to deliver impact
  2. Be an active advocate for the causes that matter most to you
  3. Share your success to inspire others in the network
  4. Unlikely collaborators may make for great collective impact
  5. Contribute to a network and you contribute to your own success

Read the full article about philanthropic impact in Asia by Naina Subberwal Batra at Philanthropy In Focus.