Today I learned that a number of foundations would give more money to collaborations than they would to individual requests! I attended the Philanthropy Partners Conference hosted by the Maine Philanthropy Center today at the beautiful Samoset resort in Rockport, Maine.

The conference was an important opportunity to hear from funders and non-profits alike on topics such as:

• Funders Collaborate?!
• Nonprofit Collaboration – Making It Real and Making It Work: Experiences from the Field
• Listening to Your Partner: What Nonprofits and Funders Value Most About Each Other
• Building Nonprofit Capacity: How Grantmakers are Strengthening the Sector
• Project vs. Operating Support: The Oldest Debate in Grantmaking
• Nonprofit Mergers – By Choice or by Necessity But Not a Dirty Word Anymore
• Investing in Change: Grantmaking and Public Policy

The tone for the conference was set by Rip Rapson, head of the Kresge Foundation who spoke about how foundations needed to change a great deal to really help non-profits achieve the greatest impact possible.

As you can see from the headings of sessions listed above, collaboration was a key theme of the day. Funders spoke of their need to collaborate to tackle big problems and non-profits spoke of their collaborative efforts–both successful and unsuccessful.

One participant asked the collaborator funders to comment on how much time it takes for non-profit people to collaborate and wondered if there was some technology answer that would help build community and trust while also saving some time. The answer from one of the funders (who was recently wowed by Little Green Light) was that “Yes!” Technology can help and is being used in a project he’s working on to increase communication and knowledge sharing among distant participants of a network.

Several other funders stated it simply: “Non-profits who really collaborate shouldn’t worry that their ‘slice of the pie’ will decrease. In fact, they all agreed they would give more money in new and more challenging places to true collaborative projects.”

We at Little Green Light find this to be very encouraging and we’re pleased we’ve designed an easy to use tool for our clients to use when they work together on projects. The communication is so simple and the transparency among partner organizations so complete–trust comes naturally!

Best,

Chris Bicknell