Humility in Partnership

How can large donor and financing institutions reach community-based organizations? Lakshmi Moore, Program Director of Girls First Fund (GFF), presented to the Chroma Collective a fresh approach to funding, by way of directing grants at scale to grassroots groups through donor collaboratives like GFF. 

GFF began in 2018 when eight donors joined to support the effort of ending child marriage through strategically targeting community-based and locally-focused, national organizations across Dominican Republic, Niger, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, India, and Nepal. In addition to funding, GFF serves as a learning collaborative for up to 170 grantees through a facilitated mentoring and accompaniment process. GFF supports Funding Advisors in countries where the Fund works, and these Funding Advisors connect partner organizations with local experts, while also capturing impact that may not otherwise be reported. GFF prioritizes multi-directional learning (e.g., Funding Advisors to grantees, grantees to the gender ecosystem, community experts to grantees, grantees to communities, etc.) and demonstrates impact by documenting what they learn while providing support to their organizations.

What do these organizations need in order to succeed, according to Moore? Adaptable, flexible, and long term funding. Core support to those who have been working on these issues the longest–and who certainly have the best pulse on the realities on the ground–is what’s needed for community-based organizations to thrive, she shared. This funding approach challenges traditional approaches of short-term project cycles and fixed reporting. “What is the information we really need from partners?” Moore posed. “And how do we want to define the parameters in our partnerships? It’s been a steep learning curve for us, and in the end, we’ve landed on a humility approach.” Essentially, GFF has found the balance between non-negotiables and risk, systems and relationships, information and impact.

Moore highlighted partner organizations’ commitment to comprehensive and holistic approaches in their work. Many of these entities focus on girls’ leadership, yet they apply a number of different strategies–over the longer-term–to achieve this aim. For example, organizations may focus on sexual and reproductive health education and access to prevent unwanted pregnancies, keep girls in school, and avoid early marriage. Others may prioritize skills-building to enhance girls’ confidence and decision-making abilities, availing them to better advocate for themselves. GFF documents the tactics of these varied approaches and partners with research organizations to rigorously uncover impact.

Chroma members inquired whether and how grassroots organizations come together and strategize around their shared goals, as well as methods of developing strategic partnerships with global and multilateral institutions. Moore expressed ways in which funding partnerships share and channel knowledge, influence, and resources in a multitude of directions–not just top-down. Additionally, GFF acknowledges that context matters. Some countries have established movements and organizations that work in specific areas and with other donors, with whom grantees can collaborate. GFF Funding Advisors serve to channel information and trends to and through grantees, encouraging connections and even opening up new funding opportunities (when appropriate), while also promoting organizational distinctiveness. As a donor collaborative, GFF also strongly considers alignment in priorities and added value in its partnerships and investments.

What role do GFF and other donor collaboratives play in supporting feminist organizations in development? Even though GFF is not a feminist organization, according to Moore, they apply feminist practices in grantmaking and, among other practices, prioritize funding to women-led and feminist organizations. GFF desires to be an ally, recognizing the role that other feminist organizations fill and how GFF can enter into what is already taking place. Funding partnerships would do well to build relationships with these organizations, clearly understand their work, and carefully consider how to best support them through funding.

After Chroma members shared with one another and with Moore about a number of localization approaches currently underway by Chroma institutions, the session concluded with one final question: What are the top barriers or challenges faced by small, grassroots organizations, and what can be done by funding partners to best support local communities?

In response, Moore shared that organizations don’t tend to consider successorship or how to ensure systems will carry on without the passion and vision of the original leadership team. Younger generations within organizations often struggle to think strategically about preserving culture and sustaining processes. GFF intentionally and delicately works with these organizations to guide them onto their next phase of change-making. This challenge again highlights the need for flexible and non-traditional funding approaches to support strategic thinking in organizations as they evolve and reorganize to better meet the needs in their communities.

Finally, Moore highlighted that amid donors’ pursuits to localize and support feminist grassroots organizations, it’s important not to romanticize their efforts. Many organizations work in very patriarchal societies with deeply entrenched value systems. Individuals in these contexts may inadvertently reinforce harmful norms or shy away from working with more marginalized groups, whether due to social sanctioning or other influences. Sometimes this behavior is unintended, and alternate approaches may have simply been unintentionally missed or misunderstood. Funding partnerships like GFF, and donors more broadly, must enter these contexts with a desire to understand and closely collaborate with their local partners. This is learning through accompaniment.

This is humility in partnership.