Emily Wexler is a program specialist for Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, a coalition of nearly 3,600 members representing more than 400 grantmaking organizations. Below, she writes about lessons learned from collaboration among local and national funders. Photo credit: Flickr user Artyom.

When we talk to grantmakers about collaboration, we often find that even people who buy into the “why” of partnership struggle with the thornier question of “how.” Reports such as “Catalyzing Regional Economic Transformation,” released last year by the Fund for Our Economic Future and Knight Foundation, are essential in pulling back the curtain on funder partnerships, which can be as complicated as they are fruitful.

In a recent Grantmakers for Effective Organizations guide, we tackle a topic for grantmakers interested in learning about the opportunities and challenges of working with others: local and national funder partnerships.

Our discussions with grantmakers revealed that these partnerships have a unique set of challenges due to the fact that one partner has greater resources and the other has greater knowledge of a particular community. While these assets should be complementary, they can also create friction.

But just as we found challenges in our scan of the field, we also found bright spots. For longtime partners the Annie E. Casey Foundation and Mile High United Way in Denver, their openness to a new way of working together enabled them both to advance their work and become stronger collaborators along the way.

For many years, the Casey Foundation provided funding for Mile High United Way to implement a large-scale community change initiative developed by the national foundation. At the conclusion of the initiative, both funders came together to discuss their future relationship.

Leaders at Mile High United Way believed that regional efforts aimed at increasing grade-level reading would thrive with continued investment. When Mile High United Way became a Social Innovation Fund grantmaking intermediary, they had the opportunity to advance this work. The Casey Foundation saw the momentum of the effort and signed on to help Mile High United Way reach the required match. Together with local grantees and other funding partners, they are pursuing the ambitious goal of raising third-grade literacy rates in Colorado by 25 percent by 2016.

Building on their pre-existing strong relationship, Mile High United Way and the Casey Foundation have shifted from working as grantee and grantmaker to partnering as co-investors. The larger Casey Foundation has been willing to take a backseat and defer to the direction of the funder on the ground. For its part, Mile High United Way has brought valuable local knowledge and connections and has been comfortable sharing information and advice with its national partner.

Examples like this—and that of the Fund for Our Economic Future—are important not just for all that they accomplish in the communities they serve, but for the model they offer to other funders who are interested in collaboration, but are unsure of where to start or how to navigate working with funders of different sizes and scopes. The promise of these partnerships is clear. In reflecting on his work with Mile High United Way, Dennis Campa of the Annie E. Casey Foundation shared, “With local funders as partners we can take informed risks, and learn from those, see what actually made a difference, and find out how to improve. We have to evolve, and that means looking for different relationships that will accelerate the results we want to see in the world.”

By Emily Wexler, program specialist for Grantmakers for Effective Organizations