In Community, Not Competition

What you can learn from others leading philanthropic networks like yours

During a recent event that we hosted, we explored ‘The Power, and the Dark Side, of Collaboration’. Esther Hughes from Global Dialogue referenced a brilliant quote from Barry Knight about what’s required to meaningfully collaborate. She said we need to leave our ‘egos, logos, silos and halos’ at the door. Silence followed as this resonated around the room and we all shared a ‘light-bulb’ moment. Now, that one stuck.

Despite growing popularity towards the concept and benefits of collaboration within philanthropy, we know there are challenges to both quantity and effectiveness, holding us back from meaningfully advancing the sector. An ‘us and them’ mentality still exists in many partnerships, and as the majority of collaborative engagements are project-based they produce short-term results due to their finite focus and limited scope. Such collaborations do not build broader trusted relations or break down wider organizational silos. Therefore, they cannot truly result in an ‘us’ mindset, where competition is replaced by commonality.

Instead, we believe there’s an important and undervalued approach to collaboration in the philanthropy space that will lead to greater sustainability and impact — Community. A community approach is credited for giving people a sense of belonging and enabling solidarity around common experiences, as well as a space to build trust. Unlike standalone collaborations, community building focuses less on a defined project, and more on relationships themselves — facilitating deeper connections, more trust, and broader understanding. This results in lasting bonds, which are pivotal in breaking down everyday structural barriers and changing behaviors for the better.

At The Mesa we work at the intersection between community, technology and philanthropy. We seek to transform philanthropy by leveraging community to empower philanthropic networks to connect online, grow together, and give better. Tapping into our community building expertise, we wanted to dive deeper into the challenges that prevent a more collaborative philanthropic ecosystem and experiment with the question: What could change the current state of play and challenge existing partnership mechanisms? From there, Collective was born.

With Collective, we curated a group of five leading philanthropic networks: Co-Impact, Generation Pledge, Maverick Collective by Population Services International (PSI), Synergos, and Women Moving Millions for a 5-month pilot programme, supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. We specifically designed and built Collective as an online community, meaning it would be accessible globally and therefore able to convene a geographically diverse group of philanthropic networks. Digital is in many ways the new normal after the pandemic and it opens doors for bringing together a broader range of actors and global perspectives. Collective had two aims; firstly, to strengthen individual capacity — supporting the people leading philanthropic networks to learn and grow in collaboration with peers, and create more impact in the world; Secondly, to support sector capacity — thinking about what a model or outcome could look like for the sector at large.

During Collective, we explored some of the fundamental issues and challenges that philanthropic networks face, which included:

1. Creating meaningful community experiences with their members

2. What metrics can be used to measure impact

3. Attracting, engaging and retaining members with online and offline programing

4. Inducting and orienting board members

5. Communicating organizational value and impact

6. Fundraising

7. Collaborating with others

Through Collective, it emerged that many of the above challenges continue due to ongoing sectoral silos. We discovered that there isn’t transparency or clarity on the overall landscape of existing philanthropic networks. Because the sector lacks such transparency, there are duplicative philanthropic entities that serve similar missions, thematic or geographical areas while underserved populations and causes have limited or no representation. Similarly, without a comprehensive understanding of the landscape, philanthropic networks cannot align and play to their strengths, nor coordinate resources effectively or efficiently. Because of this lack of clarity, philanthropists, advisors, and donor communities don’t know which philanthropic groups are most relevant for themselves or their clients, leading to overwhelm and discouraging engagement. Overall, this fragmented approach results in less philanthropic resources being activated for important causes.

Over the course of the pilot, the members:

1. Built trust and an ongoing connection, showing how a community approach can break down barriers and forge meaningful relationships quickly

2. Were open and honest about challenges they faced, and successes they were having

3. Mentored each other, sharing their strengths and supporting each other to overcome barriers, providing new thinking and sparking inspiration

4. Felt reassured and validated in their roles by being connected with peers who experienced similar challenges, frustrations, motivators and outlooks

5. Found mutual benefit as they were empowered by being able to meaningfully contribute and benefit others, as well as learning from their peers’ experiences

6. Strengthened their own practices and programing, incorporating ideas generated through Collective into their work

7. Became more informed about the work of the other organizations and where there could be opportunities to synergize in the future, and create more impact together

8. Most importantly, they found a community amongst their peers, giving them first-hand experience of the value they can create for their own members and how to achieve this in an online environment

“The in-depth nature of the convenings, spread over many months enabled me to build close relationships and immerse myself in a way which would not have been possible if this was just a one-off experience.” — Synergos

“[Through Collective] we have a great infrastructure to build off for the future — I know collaboration is more possible than ever!” — Maverick Collective by PSI

As philanthropic organizations, we are all working to increase social impact through more efficient use and coordination of resources, a goal that unites us all. Through community, we have a unique opportunity to develop our ‘us’ mindset, and work together towards something bigger. The Collective pilot has demonstrated there is both value, and an appetite, for such an initiative. That’s why we are excited to share that we will be expanding Collective to support more philanthropic networks worldwide.

Collective is the global peer community for leaders of philanthropic networks. Through monthly community convenings and a private network space, we seek to strengthen individual and organizational capacity as well as the overall sector by providing leaders of philanthropic networks with a peer community of support to overcome the day-to-day challenges they face. There will also be opportunities to engage with thought leaders within the sector, and outside of it, through sharing curated best practices and offering hands-on coaching to support philanthropic communities.

We welcome you to join the Collective community. If you have a mission to activate more philanthropic resources and are a dedicated leader of a philanthropic network focused on generating online or offline opportunities for your philanthropist members, then we would love to invite you to apply to join Collective as a Founding Member — early bird discounts will be available! We will be accepting applications on a rolling basis and will be launching our first convenings from September.

We aim to transform philanthropy one new connection at a time, and we hope you will join us on that journey.

To find out more about Collective and how to join please find details on our website or contact Jill Nicholson, Head of Community.