Executive Summary
The recent shifts in international aid have been seismic. In 2024, official development assistance (ODA) declined for the first time in six years, by 7.1 percent in real terms, compared to 2023.1 In early 2025, the US administration moved swiftly to dismantle the US Agency for International Development (USAID), deepening shockwaves across the global health and development fields. Clinics closed. Vaccination, nutrition, clean water, and rural education programs were scaled back or disappeared altogether.
Leaders in the Global South described the suddenness and severity of funding cuts as cruel and inhumane. As of November 5, 2025, USAID’s dismantling has already caused an estimated six hundred thousand deaths, two-thirds of them children.2 Researchers project that an additional fourteen million lives will be lost by 2030 if the current pace of defunding continues.3 In the face of this crisis, leaders remain deeply committed to the communities they serve. Many are even asking: Could this moment create an inflection point, a chance to rebuild systems to be more just, resilient, locally rooted, sustainable, and self-reliant?
Philanthropy Can be Catalytic
For decades, ODA enabled transformative gains in global health, from mass immunization to steep declines in child mortality. But it has also been the subject of growing criticism: power concentrated in the Global North, siloed funding, and cycles of dependence. Today’s aid contraction exposes these weaknesses.
Philanthropy could never replace ODA at scale, but it can play a catalytic role. Through flexible, risk-tolerant capital and cross-sector collaboration, funders can invest in systems that endure—supporting proximate leaders, strengthening public institutions, and leveraging technology to accelerate sustainability. As Nadia Kist of Blood:Water notes, resilience arises when local organizations operate “without restriction, delivering fully locally led solutions.”
Why Collaboratives Are in a Position of Strength
Recognizing that these challenges are too large for any one pathway, The Bridgespan Group set out to understand what role philanthropic collaboration can play amid the current volatility. Building on Bridgespan’s global research on philanthropic collaboratives, we conducted 27 interviews with funders and collaborative leaders, reviewed nearly 50 reports, and surveyed 52 global health and development collaboratives. The findings reveal both hesitation and hope. Many funders feel paralyzed amid geopolitical uncertainty and domestic backlash, as they are wary of new risks. Others see an opportunity to shift power to local actors and invest in sustainable systems.
Philanthropic collaboratives—pooled-funding vehicles that aggregate resources and expertise—are well-suited to this environment: our survey reveals they are largely insulated from ODA cuts yet face surging demand amid declining funder commitments. Positioned between large donors and front-line organizations, collaboratives act as bridges—maintaining the flow of resources and knowledge when public aid is scarce. But they are reaching the limits of what they can do without greater investment.
How Collaborative Philanthropy Is Meeting the Moment
Collaboratives are translating their strengths into three primary areas of action:
Rapid regranting and stabilization: Collaborative efforts emerged rapidly to shore up urgent work and organizational capacity—ultimately mobilizing millions within months to sustain critical global health and development work disrupted by USAID cuts.
Long-term capacity and infrastructure: Collaborative funds focus on strengthening the long-term capacity of local leaders, organizations, and infrastructure—and can help donors identify and fund high-impact local initiatives.
Collaboration across sectors and stakeholders: Collaboratives convene governments, funders, and private actors to codesign sustainable solutions.
The Path Forward
Philanthropy’s strength lies in its catalytic, time-limited capital and its ability to take risks. For donors looking to fund new geographies or issue areas, or those who feel they lack the time to fully source and research more bespoke giving options, collaboratives can offer an opportunity to learn while giving, and potentially identify organizations to fund directly in the future. For donors worried about being “a drop in the bucket,” collaborative giving to support systems-level change can offer a chance to meet the problem at a scale they couldn’t achieve alone.
"Funders keep telling us they're waiting to see how the dust settles,” says Katie Bunten-Wamaru, co-CEO of African Collaborative, a collaborative fund that invests in African-led organizations. “We tell them, you have the resources to help the dust settle better. Now would be the time to do this.”
This report was developed with support from the Gates Foundation. The findings and conclusions contained within are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of the Gates Foundation.
