Maximizing the Value and Impact of Funder Collaboratives:
Lessons from Funders for Housing and Opportunity (FHO)
Across the globe, funder collaboratives have emerged as a way to increase efficiency, impact, and engagement with peers and practitioners. A growing body of research has been examining the key ingredients of funder collaboratives, how they are used, and how they add value.
Two kinds of problems are uniquely ripe for tackling most effectively through collaborative means: those that require an intentional focus on dismantling systemic racism and issues that require us to work across sectors and systems. Housing justice is FHO's mission and a prime example of the kind of work that hits fully on those two characteristics. In this report we expand on an article we authored in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Housing Justice and Systems Change Through a Funder Collaborative, and dig deeper into lessons we’ve learned about getting the most out of funder collaboratives—offered from a place of humility, given our collaborative’s newness—to help the field learn in real time from this evolving and promising form of philanthropy. The report covers observations about the value and impact of working in this way, followed by what we are learning about how to maximize a funder collaborative’s benefits and achievements.
