2009-05-27 The Value of Intermediary Organizations in Philanthropy
by Sylvia, Thursday, May 28, 09 |
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In the list of sessions scheduled during the Council on Foundation’s 2009 annual conference, held early this month, there was one that caught my attention: Global Impact: How Intermediaries are Transforming Grantmaking. I did not have the opportunity to attend the session, but its description did get me thinking – has the day arrived when intermediaries are finally considered first-class participants in community change?
The majority of my experiences in the nonprofit sector has been with intermediary organizations. Thus, I have a very clear understanding of the historical and present-day value they bring to the field. The Council’s session explored “how intermediaries are transforming philanthropy with increased collaboration across borders and why their impact far outstrips the size of their grants.” It mentions that they strategically disperse “large pools of money to groups on the ground that would otherwise not have access to such resources” and they “...pool funds and leverage other resources and bring together leaders to...facilitate the exchange of ideas and best practices.” In my experience, I have found all of this to be true, in both the national and international fields.
However, one of the first things I learned about working with Intermediaries was that I had to defend and justify their value in the “system” that is now the non-profit sector. The impact of such organizations, as summarized above, is commonly neglected or denied. If a donor can donate directly to a project-executing organization, then why should funding pass through a middleman organization? Why create more administration, more levels of project management, and more distance between on-the-ground organizations and a donor? These were the questions I faced on a regular basis. Some organizations would tackle the questions head-on and challenge the disbeliever argument for argument. Others in my network have responded to these questions by avoiding the term altogether, as if the word “intermediary” was a matter of marketing and not the definition of their work.
Despite the positive advancements and increased levels of global impact that philanthropy and their grass-roots organization have achieved in the last 30 years, there are still many gaps that leave poor and vulnerable communities outside of the “system” and without access to opportunities for social and economic development. In other words, as means are created to reach more countries and more people, we also learn of more communities that exist just beyond our reach.
Intermediary organizations help fill these gaps and are often the difference between a good intention and a strategic social investment in hard-to-reach, marginalized communities. They provide an understanding of the local context (political, cultural, historical, etc...), as well as an insight into the multitude of actors, methodologies, and models that are being used across isolated initiatives occurring in and/or around the community. Additionally, a philanthropic investment through an intermediary organization connects donors to a network of social actors in a way that encourages and facilitates coordinated strategies, collaborated actions, and the ever-so-valuable exchange of experiences, knowledge, and human resources.
In short, I was glad to see this topic on the list of conversations to be had during one of most notable gatherings of leaders in the nonprofit and grantmaking fields. Intermediary organizations are valuable partners in the non-profit sector’s ability to impact the hard to reach corners of all our communities in need – at home and around the globe. Their recognition as such has been long-in coming and undeniably earned. |
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