Applying an (eco)system approach to funding — experiences from foundations and philanthropies
On Thursday 6 May 2021, UNDP’s Strategic Innovation Unit hosted the webinar “Applying an (eco)system approach to funding — experiences from foundations and philanthropies.”
The webinar tackled the issue that traditional funding models in international development (and beyond) based on siloed interventions and a projectized logic, rigid log-frames and short-term frameworks are not a good fit to foster societal transformations required for the world to meet the Sustainable Development Goals.
In the webinar, three distinguished speakers from major foundations shared their experiences with rethinking funding and financial instruments to better align with and support systems transformation.
The speakers were:
- Erin Sines — MacArthur Foundation: Erin is Co-Director of the On Nigeria initiative at MacArthur Foundation. With her co-director she leads the Foundation’s team responsible for investments to reduce corruption and promote accountability in Nigeria.
- Cassie Robinson — National Lottery Community Fund. Cassie is the Deputy Director of Funding Strategy at The National Lottery Community Fund where she is responsible for Innovation, Policy and Practice.
- Gautam John — Nilekani Philanthropies. Gautam is the Director of Strategy at Nilekani Philanthropies.
All three speakers provided fascinating insights about their work and how they are rethinking funding to better support big societal transformations. Some key take aways are:
- The need (and usefulness of) shifting from short (1–3 years) to long term (5–10 years) funding
- Moving from evaluating individual projects to evaluating portfolios as a whole
- Transitioning away from traditional metrics and log-frames towards measuring and being accountable for learning
- Going from funding single point solutions to funding the wider infrastructure/ecosystems that enable others to develop their own solutions collaboratively
Some of these shifts are well captured in this table shared by Cassie Robinson:
If this sounds intriguing, we highly recommend that you listen to the recording below and keep an eye out for future sessions like it. If you are interested in collaborating with us on issues such these do reach out!
