Nonprofits are navigating funding volatility, policy uncertainty, and rising community needs, all while being asked to deliver more impact with fewer flexible resources. Many grantmakers are asking a practical question: what does it look like to help grantee partners not just survive for the short term, but build the capacity to adapt and lead for the long term?
One answer emerging in communities across the country is coordinated investment in nonprofit capacity. Some funders are investing in shared efforts that make it easier for organizations to access high-quality support in areas such as fundraising, leadership, finance, operations, or governance, that is relevant to their work and context.
At Community Wealth Partners, we’ve supported funder collaboratives and anchor institutions to design and launch regional capacity initiatives. Below are three examples that illustrate different models and the decisions that shaped them.
Statewide Resource Center: Alliance for Nonprofit Impact
Incubated by United Way of Rhode Island (UWRI), the Alliance for Nonprofit Impact was shaped by an 11-person design team of nonprofit leaders from across the state, bringing practitioner perspective into the core of the effort from the beginning. Community Wealth Partners worked with UWRI and the design team throughout 2022, serving as a project manager, researcher, and facilitator of the design team. Together, we drew on input from nearly 400 stakeholders, a scan of nonprofit resource centers nationally (conducted with a local partner), an inventory of existing capacity supports in Rhode Island, and a revenue feasibility assessment to test options for long-term sustainability. Today, the Alliance operates as a statewide resource hub working to strengthen nonprofit staff, organizations, and the broader ecosystem. The Alliance is rolling out a paid membership program, offering training and workshops in key capacity areas (such as fundraising and board development), and coordinating a joint policy agenda.
Incubator for Innovation and Collaboration: Co.act Detroit
In 2017, the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation decided to invest in creating a center in Detroit to support nonprofits in Southeast Michigan. The vision was a space where nonprofits could collaborate and innovate around challenges facing the region and access resources and support they need to effectively deliver solutions. The foundation engaged Community Wealth Partners as a neutral third party to facilitate design sessions, provide ongoing project management to keep the work on track, and support the foundation’s local partners in engaging key stakeholders across Southeastern Michigan. A team of local partners and a national consultant worked together to engage stakeholders, co-create the design, and support planning and implementation. Informed by national research and stakeholder input, the partners defined a five-stage continuum to understand nonprofits’ evolving capacity for collaboration and innovation and to provide the right resources and supports at the right time. Today the center offers a range of services to support nonprofit capacity, such as consulting, equipment loans, peer learning and support networks, and resources for leaders.
Funder Collaborations: Nonprofit Support Group and The Capacity Lab
Recognizing that a healthy nonprofit sector is essential for a healthy community, a group of five funders in Western New York joined with two local nonprofits to explore gaps and opportunities for supporting the region’s nonprofit ecosystem. A landscape assessment that Community Wealth Partners conducted surfaced limited capacity-building infrastructure. In response Community Wealth Partners facilitated collective planning and visioning among the partners to design an entity to introduce and connect nonprofits to innovative supports. The Nonprofit Support Group (NSG) launched in 2019 to connect nonprofits to capacity supports and each other. In its first five years, NSG partnered with more than 50 intermediaries to provide programs and services to more than 500 nonprofits—linking local organizations to the support and expertise they need. Building on the success of NSG, funders worked with Community Wealth Partners to facilitate a similar process in adjacent Chautauqua County to assess needs and support the design and initial build-out of The Capacity Lab.
Recommendations for Grantmakers
Place-based capacity supports can complement grantmaking by reducing duplication (one shared platform instead of many one-off technical assistance efforts) and by creating a durable space for collaboration that outlasts any single funding cycle.
While each of these efforts had goals and outcomes that were tailored to the context and needs of their community, some key considerations were central to the approach in each example.
- Combine local and national landscape assessments to understand assets and gaps in your community and to learn from successful efforts from around the country
- Tailor solutions to your local context, designing efforts that leverage the unique strengths of your community why also filling critical gaps
- Invest in thoughtful, inclusive engagement. Build buy-in with nonprofits, funders, service providers, and public-sector partners—and be explicit about how input will be used
- Plan for sustainability from day one. Use feasibility assessments and business modeling to clarify who pays for what, what must remain free, and what long-term governance is needed to avoid over-reliance on a single funder
As grantmakers look for ways to support nonprofit resilience and effectiveness, regional capacity initiatives offer promise. By making investments to strengthen the ecosystem nonprofits rely on, grantmakers can help ensure their communities have vibrant local and regional nonprofit sectors that can continue to meet community needs for the long term.
Lori Bartczak is Associate Vice President at Community Wealth Partners, where she helps funders and nonprofits turn promising ideas into practical strategies through consulting, research, writing, and field-building. Lori is also a proud former GEO staff member, where she served the GEO community for 16 years.