July 3, 2019

How Philanthropic Collaborations Succeed and Why They Fail

When executed well, funder collaboratives can drive tremendous results—greater results than funders generally believe they could attain by working alone. For an overview of the results of our research, read "How Philanthropic Collaboratives Succeed, and Why They Fail," (Stanford Social Innovation Review, July 2019)


By: Alison Powell, Susan Wolf Ditkoff

Philanthropic Collaborations Database—Updated January 2023

Created by The Bridgespan Group in collaboration with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, this database features information including amount directed, core issue areas, and grantmaking processes from more than 200 collaborative funds that participated in our annual survey or that were identified through Bridgespan research.

 

Are Funder Collaboratives Valuable? A Research Study

Complete findings of our research, including results of a survey of 425 grantees and funders participating in ten different collaboratives as well as 65 funder and grantee interviews and reviews of evaluations of 13 collaboratives. [PDF]

 

Value of Collaboration Research Study Literature Review

An overview, summary, and bibliography of the more than 150 pieces of literature reviewed during the research phase of our work. [PDF]