Philanthropic Funders

Summary:

Philanthropic funders recognize the need for innovation if ambitious development goals like the global Sustainable Development Goals are to be met. For example, in the digital space, a range of new initiatives contemplate the development of digital public infrastructure in the form of open software, data or al. The building and maintenance of these new forms of digital service will require effective governance throughout their life cycles so that they achieve maximum impact with least investment of resources.

In cases like these, launching an innovation presupposes a new program or organization as its home, if the existing choices are not suitable or available. The new program or organization will require effective decision making mechanisms from the outset if it is to meet expectations of performance and to satisfy funders’ needs for accountability. 

A ‘venture philanthropy’ mindset expects that new programs will be set up fast and ready to implement. And then able to scale fast once a solution is tested and proven to work. This requires flexible organization design to achieve the optimal degrees of flexibility with oversight throughout the lifecycle of the organization. At Integral, our founder has been involved in the startup of a range of new programs and organizations; and has experience in incubating new non profit initiatives effectively before transitioning them to an independent long term home as described in the case study below.

Funders also seek external validation of the effectiveness of their investments. External performance review can be a first step towards a rationalized approach of monitoring and evaluation. This approach needs to ensure that it feeds back into the decision making process of the program or organization, whether steering committee or board. 

Case Study:

Our founder was involved as the co-founder with two others of a non-profit entity in the education technology space in 2015. Together, they raised a seed fund grant; and sought to focus on their core innovation--a new edtech platform which would provide ongoing education to professionals in emerging markets. To provide a sound home to receive, disburse and account for the grant funding, they proposed a special program under the auspices of fiscal sponsor Rockefeller Philanthropy Associates (RPA). This program was advised by a steering committee which included the co-founders together with the seed funder and RPA. This program was set up quickly and efficiently, allowing the focus of the first year to be on bringing the minimum viable product to market and testing and refining it. After two years of incubation, and having proven takeup, the program span out of RPA to become an independent non-profit company registered in another jurisdiction, taking with it is brand and other assets, including a two year track record which was very important in applying for other grants.

Our services to philanthropic funders:

Advisory: our advisory services are crafted to fit the needs of clients in these general areas:

• Organizational governance architecture: we support the design of appropriate mechanisms to support new and existing organizations—from concept design to drafting charters and procedures--in conjunction with funders.
• Design of outcome and impact indicators: with reference to legal requirements and funder needs, we can develop and propose appropriate indicators most relevant to an organization and its theory of change or logframe, and support management to collect and analyze the information collected.
• Governance evolution: we can review the fit of governance structures to organizational stage and trajectory; and recommend adjustment for greater effectiveness. For example, as a project evolves from a fiscal sponsored special project to an independent organization, its governance has to evolve to provide oversight and guidance.
• Strategic planning: we support board and management in strategic planning, involving a full suite of tools including scenario analysis to ensure resilience and awareness.

Learn more about our advisory services

Evaluation: we provide evaluations of effectiveness for programs or organizations of different types:

• Governance effectiveness reviews: we can structure self-evaluations for board members to complete, and can then compile the results to feedback to the board; we can also undertake full board effectiveness reviews including interviews as part of a cycle of evaluation; and would deliver a report to the board making recommendations.
• Performance reviews: we can compile reviews of performance against benchmark indicators of output, outcome and even impact in selected sectors following a theory of change.
• Governance information flow review: effective governance depends on the flow of relevant information, yet this flow is often constrained by IT infrastructure and increasingly, also by legal requirements around the processing of certain types of data. We can provide a ‘wiring diagram’ of flows as a basis of recommending where upgrades in approach could improve governance.

Learn more about our evaluation services

Facilitation: we offer services to provide independent facilitation of strategic meetings

• Board and executive workshops: we run structured workshops in person and remotely for decision making bodies wrestling with specific issues where independent facilitation is needed. The structure of the workshop would be co-designed with the client, with the end in mind. The service would include a workshop report and suggested next steps to ensure an action orientation.

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Highlighted Staff-member:

David Porteous has had substantial experience in the design of new organizations and programs in different parts of the world. Many of these have been funded by private foundations and/or bilateral or multilateral development agencies. He has also sat on the boards of for profit and non-profit entities established to pursue public purposes. He has chaired different mechanisms for the efficient and equitable disbursement of donor funds for innovation including the Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund.

To explore further how we can help you, contact us for a free consultation.