The Potential for Funder Networks to Effectuate Collective Impact

• Date: 01 August 2018

48 ELR 10694 ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REPORTER 8-2018

Having spent the greater part of my professional

life supporting social cha nge through philan-

thropy, I welcome the focus Patience Crowder is

bringing to the potential role of the legal profession and

contract law to enhance the eectiveness of collective

impact strategies. One does not have to spend much time

in traditional philanth ropy before beginning to question

the value of providing yearly funding to va rious organi-

zations for various activities directed at the public good.

is piecemeal approach leaves gaping holes and persistent

questions about impact and fundamental transformation

that are not being adequately addressed in most current

funding approaches. Taking a more comprehensive and

systematic approach makes more sense on the face of it

and, as Crowder states, “has the potential for making

large-scale social change.”1

Crowder eectively summarizes the benets and strat-

egy associated with t he collective impact approach. She

provides an interesting and comprehensive collec tive

impact framework and an analysis of the values and risks

in collective impact. However, as Crowder points out, “[a]

s a strategy for social cha nge, collective impact houses an

unquantiable and unique value yet to be fully realized.”2

I hope to contribute to the discussion this paper initiates

by utilizing my history of phila nthropic work to oer some

insights into why this exciting approach is yet to be ful ly

realized, and then to oer some suggestions about how

Crowder’s work could be directed most usefully toward

the philanthropic community, where I think many of

the problems lie. is paper does an important serv ice in

explaining and attempting to improve upon the history of

contract law and its adaptability to collective impact ac tiv-

1. Patience A. Crowder, Impact Transaction: Lawyering for the Public Good

rough Collective Impact Agreements, 49 I. L. R.. 621, 621 (2016).

2. Id. at 646.

ity. Crowder encourages an expansion in thinking about

contract law and describes how it could contribute to col-

lective impact approache s.

In most cities and regions, a collective impact approach

needs both nancial a nd intellectual capital from a founda-

tion or foundations. Crowder describes the variety of roles

that can be and are played by fu nders and other support-

ers of collective impact initiatives (CIIs). However, because

there are many dierent kinds of foundations, a nd because

the amount of funding and the leadership necessary to

bring a group of foundations together to pursue a common

goal is not insignicant, CIIs also require an expansion in

thinking on the part of foundations. Crowder addresses

this problem, acknowledging that “paradigm shifts” have

occurred or must occur in phila nthropic, nonprot, gov-

ernmental, and commercial spheres as a result of the rising

prominence of c ollective impact str ategies.

All foundations operate in unique ways, with dier-

ent and often multiple objectives. ey embody dierent

ideas about the roles of their sta, have diering amounts

of available funding, and have their own prevailing insti-

tutional constraints. ere are la rge, national foundations

such as the Ford Foundation, operating foundations such

e Pew Charitable Trusts, regional foundations such as

the W.K. Kellog g Foundation, corporate found ations,

community foundations, family foundations—both large

and small—a nd even networks of foundations that operate

in geographic and/or subject areas.

Crowder lists three signicant roles that funders—

including private foundations, public c harities, and busi-

ness enterprises—play in CIIs. ey are often looked to,

rst, for nancial support for the initiative’s underlying

infrastruct ure or management body; second, for advisory

help and information about the particular issue being

addressed; and third, for contacts to other foundations,

various forms of expertise, technical support, and guid-

COMMENT

The Potential for Funder Networks

to Effectuate Collective Impact

by Kristin A. Pauly

Kristin A. Pauly is a co-founder of the Chesapeake Bay Funders Network, and served

as the Managing Director of Prince Charitable Trusts for 17 years.

Copyright © 2018 Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, DC. Reprinted with permission from ELR®, http://www.eli.org, 1-800-433-5120.