How We Support Philanthropic Collaboratives

Over the past decade, Bridgespan has worked to build and develop the field of high-stakes funder collaboration—supporting a majority of the most significant collaboratives in size and ambition to clarify their goals, build their operating models, and move billions of dollars towards equitable social change. Through these trusted relationships, we’ve built a deep understanding of what it takes to work together in a purpose-driven and result-yielding way.

Working side by side with innovative collaboratives and publishing field-leading research, we help collaborative leaders at varying inflection points with services spanning strategy and execution:

  • Developing and launching high-impact collaborative giving vehicles: We help donors seeking to give collaboratively determine the right vehicle to achieve their goals and, when a new giving structure is necessary, support its creation and launch. We help donors align around critical questions of impact, donor engagement and governance, distribution strategy, and measurement and evaluation.
  • Structuring and managing collaborative entities and operations: From supporting collaboratives with a first hire to designing the optimal governance model, we help collaboratives determine the operating model necessary for excellent giving. We also recommend team structures, capabilities, and processes, and can provide extended or additional capacity for the collaborative’s team during start-up and launch phases or critical inflection points.
  • Sourcing and diligence of philanthropic investments: Bridgespan has decades of experience in fields from climate to public health to civic engagement, and a track record of sourcing and vetting more than 3,000 organizations and funds around the world. Collaboratives we support tap into these resources, learning from and leveraging our experience as they build and expand high-impact giving portfolios.
  • Increasing the impact and effectiveness of grantees: Through our nonprofit advising practice, Bridgespan has worked with thousands of social-change leaders on issues of strategy, management, operations, measurement, and learning. We provide tailor-made support (individually or in cohorts) to collaborative grantees or potential grantees, ranging from lighter-touch workshops to more extensive business planning, designed to help nonprofit partners reach their full potentials.

What Pritzker Children's Initiative Has to Say About Working With Bridgespan

Janet Froetscher

“We trust our Bridgespan partners, as do our grantees and other collaborators. We trust their field knowledge, approach and their way of partnering. They know the early childhood field very well and have partnered with many of the field leaders. Each year there are projects that they are best suited to lead- projects that involve collaboration with other funders- Bridgespan is uniquely skilled to support funder collaboration—they build consensus, they create and drive towards shared goals and lead the groups to action plans and commitments. They bring the field perspective and help us think through how to best catalyze ways to address those needs. In short, Bridgespan is the ideal strategic partner."

Janet Froetscher
President, Pritzker Children's Initiative

Funders Bridgespan Has Helped Collaborate

Select clients Bridgespan has supported:

  • 10-to-19 Community
  • Anamaya Logo
  • Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Logo
  • Blue Meridian Partners (BMP)
  • Climateworks Foundation logo
  • Co-Impact Logo
  • Lever for Change Logo
  • The 1954 Project Logo
  • The Audacious Project Logo

Bridgespan Publications about Funder Collaboration

Our insights have been published by Forbes, Harvard Business Review, and Stanford Social Innovation Review. Our articles also are available on our website.

The Philanthropic Collaborative Landscape

Based on survey responses between 2021 and 2023 from nearly 300 collaborative funds, this report suggests how collaborative leaders and donors might grow and strengthen this increasingly important segment of philanthropic giving.

Philanthropic Collaborations Database

A list of more than 300 collaborative funds that participated in our annual survey along with others identified through Bridgespan research.

Releasing the Potential of Philanthropic Collaborations

With more than $2 billion flowing annually to collaboratives, it’s time to shed light on the changing landscape of these philanthropic partnerships.

How Philanthropic Collaboratives Measure, Evaluate, and Learn

How collaborative funds can build measurement, evaluation, and learning processes that help them become more than the sum of their grants and grantees. 

How Philanthropic Collaborations Succeed—and Why they Fail

When executed well, funder collaboratives can drive tremendous results greater than funders believe they could attain by working alone.

The Growing Momentum Behind Philanthropic Collaboratives in India

Philanthropic collaboratives in India are evolving to help solve enduring social and environmental challenges.

Equitable Philanthropy Case Study: The 1954 Project Approach

To upend the chronic underinvestment in Black-led organizations, The 1954 Project seeks to radically redesign how philanthropy connects with Black leaders in education.

Philanthropic Collaborations in Africa and Their Unique Potential

Philanthropic collaboration across Africa is robust and complex, fueled by the continent’s burgeoning prosperity and donors’ growing acknowledgment that they need to work together.

Want to Fund in the Global South? Philanthropic Collaboratives Can Help

A range of collaborative funds working in the Global South are driving outsized local impact across issues while staying rooted in equity.

Bridgespan's Funder Collaboration Experts