ASK Foundation works with nonprofits that have the capabilities, track record, and mission alignment to achieve the objectives and goals defined in the foundation’s board-approved strategy.

The foundation believes communities should play a central role in their own change and thus seeks nonprofit partners with interventions and implementation plans that centre community needs. ASK tailors its grant process to the intensity, length, and scale of a given project.

ASK Foundation has embarked on a journey to change its funding practices. Prior to 2018, the foundation provided annual grants to multiple organisations. Realising that sustainable impact requires a longer-term outlook, it conducted a strategy refresh to identify ways to make its grantmaking more effective. Based on this exercise, it decided to enter into funding partnerships spanning a minimum of five years and to increase allocations to core costs.

ASK says that success for its new approach starts with ensuring that staff and senior leadership understand and support the foundation’s vision for impact and approach to grantmaking. To garner support, the foundation shared examples from peer funders that demonstrated the role core-cost support can play in a nonprofit partner’s ability to achieve its desired results. ASK also arranged an immersive experience for senior leadership, taking them to see nonprofit partners in action so they could observe firsthand how critical this sort of support is.

Initially, ASK faced regulatory ambiguity around whether the 5 percent cap on administrative costs for internal management of its CSR operation also applied to its nonprofit partners’ core costs. Amendments to the CSR law clarified that the 5 percent cap only applies to administration of a CSR programme. The foundation firmly believes that its core-cost support has made it possible for partner nonprofits to work more effectively and achieve greater impact.

Another challenge was that several of its nonprofit partners had difficulty articulating their core costs. Investing in communication and building greater trust with its partners have led to some improvement, but the foundation acknowledges that more is needed here.

The success of the foundation’s practice changes has also created a virtuous cycle. Internal interest in the foundation’s CSR work has increased as a result of featuring its efforts in employee town hall meetings and new employee inductions, which now have a CSR module. The marketing team has also been able to increase its dissemination of the foundation’s success stories.

As the next step in this journey, ASK intends to further strengthen its community-centric approach. It aspires to integrate the voice of communities at the beginning of programme design and plans to adapt its grantmaking policies accordingly.

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