Giving Compass' Take:

• Here are four ways to take collective action during COVID-19 to help foundations collaborate across teams effectively to better serve organizations. 

• How has COVID-19 disrupted your giving patterns? Why is collaboration important right now? 

• Read more about bringing about collective action in 2020. 

COVID-19 has been an incredibly challenging experience worldwide, and society will likely be dealing with the ramifications of this pandemic for years to come. But one positive we’ve witnessed in philanthropy is the amount of grantmakers who’ve leveraged their connections, community, and their grants management solutions to spring into collective action to support their grantees and missions.

Collective action can look and feel different depending on the approach and the initiative in focus, but nonetheless, all collective action is supported by the following tenants: funders who share a common vision or agenda, an agreement on philanthropic frameworks between teams, and a commitment to coordinated activities.

For some, collective action may be a partnership between funders and governing bodies – such as the Colorado Health Foundation partnering with the Colorado Governor's Office to launch the Colorado COVID Relief Fund. Together these teams worked quickly (in partnership with Fluxx) to ensure that a grants management solution was designed (in a matter of weeks) that would help the Fund efficiently distribute rapid response grants that would quickly provide relief for communities statewide.

Both of these approaches are wildly different in theory and in practice, but each is built on the cornerstones of collaboration and consistent communication between organizations and teams. If you are also hoping to develop collective action approaches that fuel your organization’s mission and scope, keep reading. The following four recommendations will help you as you plan your process.

  1. Put Community First
  2. Clarify All Roles
  3. Reduce the Burden on Grantees
  4. Leverage Expertise and Capacity

Read the full article about making collective action at a foundation by Casey Pechan at Fluxx.