The Power of Funding in Chorus

Earlier this year, I reflected on how my daughter’s chorus concert inspired me to pause, let other voices carry the tune, and return stronger and more connected to the collective after my sabbatical. Now, as we move through the already heavy weight of 2026, I find myself returning to that same image and to the strength that lives in a chorus of voices.

One voice, no matter how beautiful, only carries so far.

But when I listen to my daughter and her friends singing their hearts out in the back of the car, I hear what happens when voices begin to weave together. The volume builds (sometimes to excess, from my mom-with-frayed-patience perspective in the front seat), and so does their energy, their spirit, and their connection to one another. Later, when they join their peers on stage, those individual voices become something bigger: a shared sound that is powerful, grounded, and moving.

They arrive for different reasons. Some are there for the love of music. Some for the community. Some because their parents insist. But once they sing together, the why matters less than the how. Their voices align, their notes reinforce one another, and something stronger than any single voice emerges.

I’m thinking about this now because authoritarianism thrives when people are isolated, divided, and made to feel powerless. Its strength comes not from collective purpose, but from fragmentation—from convincing us that we are alone, that our voices don’t matter, and that cooperation is either impossible or dangerous.

When I feel that sense of powerlessness creeping in, when the overwhelm threatens to take over, I tune back into that small chorus of voices in the back of the car. I think about the larger concert, the swell of sound as voices rise together, and I’m reminded that collective action is not just louder, it’s also more resilient.

This is the mindset I bring to my work with the Fund for Housing and Opportunity (FHO), a collaborative fund made up of funders with different missions, priorities, and perspectives who come together around a shared goal: protecting renters and ending homelessness by supporting organizations on the frontlines of housing justice.

Recently, FHO was nominated by our peers as one of just 22 high-performing collaborative funds included in an in-depth study examining how collaborative philanthropy compares to more traditional, single-institution approaches. The findings are captured in a new report, The Collaborative Effect, from Philanthropy Together, Redstone Strategy Group, and Vital Impact, and they affirm what many of us in this work have long believed.

At their best, collaborative funds build trust, shift power, and accelerate systems change and often with an outsized impact relative to their size. Grantees rated collaborative funds in the study among the top 15 percent of all funders for impact on the field, influence on public policy, and contribution to shared knowledge.

Just as important, grantee partners reported feeling more respected and trusted when working with collaborative funds. Their expertise, lived experience, and strategic insight are not treated as secondary to funder priorities, but as central to shaping direction and decisions. At FHO, this resonates deeply. We know and respect the field because we come from it. We’re in it alongside our partners, and the trust we build keeps us grounded in what is actually needed to challenge entrenched inequities.

That trust allows for a powerful exchange. Grantees bring deep knowledge of systems and lived realities; we bring access to resources, networks, and platforms that can amplify their strategies and influence. Together, collaborative funds not only strengthen individual organizations, we help shift how philanthropy itself operates, toward approaches that are more inclusive, transparent, and accountable.

Like the singers in my daughter’s chorus, FHO’s members arrive for different reasons. Some are committed to housing justice as a pathway to health. Others see its connection to climate resilience, educational equity, or economic mobility. But when we fund together—aligning resources, knowledge, relationships, and a shared commitment to addressing power imbalances—our collective efforts reinforce and accelerate the work happening across sectors.

In a moment when collaboration is being tested, and when authoritarian impulses seek to weaken collective action, this matters deeply. Collaboration is not just a funding strategy; it is a democratic practice. It requires listening, trust, patience, and the willingness to share power—precisely the qualities that authoritarianism works to erode.

One voice, no matter how beautiful, only carries so far. 

But when we lift our voices together, in alignment and in purpose, we create something far stronger than any single note. We create the conditions for lasting, systemic change.