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Forming the Flint Funders Collaborative (FFC):

The Flint Funders Collaborative traces its origin to several informal conversations in early 2000 between the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the Ruth Mott Foundation, and the Community Foundation of Greater Flint. Initially, discussions focused on the need to improve the quality of proposals they were receiving from local nonprofit agencies. They were also concerned about the need for consistent access to high-quality technical assistance to improve organizational effectiveness and delivery of services to the community.

In late 2001, the group began exploring the idea of creating a funding collaborative focused on increasing the sustainability and effectiveness of local nonprofits. This work was facilitated by Anne Glendon, Principal of Glendon Associates, who brought considerable background in nonprofit co-location, mergers, consulting and other forms of technical assistance to the group. The United Way of Genesee County was invited to join the discussions, and subsequently became one of four funders now known as the Flint Funders Collaborative (FFC).

The FFC recognizes capacity building as much more than offering technical assistance to organizations that are struggling with particular areas of management. It also requires rethinking systems and programs in a new, more comprehensive fashion. Believing that they could be more effective by working together than separately, the FFC agreed to pool their resources to improve capacity building and longterm sustainability in the greater Flint nonprofit sector. To guide their efforts, they agreed on four value statements that captured the conceptual basis for their work:

Healthy nonprofits are critical components of our democratic society; internally stable, effective nonprofit organizations are essential to achieving a high quality of life in Flint and Genesee County;
Building the long-term capacity of key organizations in the local nonprofit sector is a worthy philanthropic investment that will have a positive, long-term impact on the community;
Building capacity in people and organizations is most effective when it begins by identifying existing strengths, creating a realistic plan for a preferred future, and then taking the first steps on that journey.
Long-term sustainability requires a collaborative relationship between consultants, funders, and agencies, because together they can accomplish what each group cannot do alone.

Designing a Place-Based Project:

In mid-2002, the FFC funded research to support the design phase and implementation of a three-year place-based pilot project to build nonprofit capacity in Flint and Genesee County. The FFC credits this research, and the careful planning that took place prior to designing and launching the BEST Pilot Project, as an essential first step. Research findings helped to sharpen their focus on outcomes that would:

Identify and increase organizational strengths, rather than simply decrease deficits;
Improve the quality of proposals that funders receive, so that opportunities for future grantmaking and local service delivery would be more targeted, promising and less duplicative;
Demonstrate respect for the contributions that nonprofits make to the community, by investing in their capacity to effectively deliver service with long-term sustainability;
Create a cadre of highly-qualified consultants and other technical assistance providers, supporting the notion that capacity building is ongoing and a valid use of resources; and
Document findings and share lessons learned with the field.

Key findings also confirmed substantial receptivity to customized consulting, organizational assessment, and other technical assistance. Focus groups of local nonprofit leaders expressed a strong interest in gaining new perspectives and approaches from consultants outside of Genesee County for organizational assessment, strategic planning, human resource development, and higher level fundraising needs. Local technical assistance received high marks in financial management, marketing, public relations and grassroots organizing. Based on their findings, the FFC developed a two-phased approach to nonprofit capacity building, using external consultants to help nonprofits first assess and then improve their organizational capacities. Because learning and sharing lessons was regarded as an important outcome from these efforts, the FFC also developed a powerful evaluation component to learn from the collaborative effort as well as from the processes and outcomes of the project itself. The BEST Pilot Project was launched in July 2003 with fifteen nonprofit agencies and concluded in June 2006. Based on the success of the Pilot Project, the FFC launched a second cohort of eight nonprofit agencies—the BEST Project—in 2005. The processes that have become hallmarks of the BEST Project are outlined in the next section.

Questions for Consideration:

What are the environmental and economic realities of the place in which the capacity building initiative will occur?
Which philanthropic organizations in the community have a substantial impact on the nonprofit sector?
What might funders be able to do together that they cannot do alone?
Do philanthropic goals match community needs?
Who are the key stakeholders?
What are the shared assumptions about major community issues? Is there current research that supports these assumptions?
How well are individual funders achieving their goals?
What experience do the local funders have in collaborating?
What would be the goals of a collaborative effort?
What resources are available for facilitating the process?
How would success be measured?
Is there commitment to the time and money it will take to achieve these objectives?
How can the nonprofit leaders in the community become engaged and trust this work? How much time and money should be allocated to this part of the effort?
What other input should be collected? What process should be used?
How will this work be perceived by the nonprofit organizations?

--Project Guide Table of Contents--

Download the entire Project Guide (11.9 MB)