Our Co-Labs are collaborative philanthropy funds addressing urgent challenges facing the world today. Each Co-Lab enables donors to maximize their efficiency through co-funding while learning from experts and leaders of impacted communities.
Our Co-Labs are collaborative philanthropy funds addressing urgent challenges facing the world today. Each Co-Lab enables donors to maximize their efficiency through co-funding while learning from experts and leaders of impacted communities.
We bring philanthropists together who have a shared social impact goal, such as combating climate change. When we have enough energy around an idea and a committed group of philanthropists, we launch a Co-Lab.
With guidance from experts and impacted communities, we evolve a broad concept like climate change into a specific focus area where philanthropic dollars can be catalytic–such as the underfunded intersection of climate change, gender equity, and poverty. We then collectively decide upon criteria to help guide the grantee sourcing, diligence, and selection process. These criteria can be anything from “must be locally-led” to “must demonstrate evidence of impact”. Together with our experts and Co-Lab donors, we use these criteria to find and vet 10-20 organizations that become the Co-Lab’s grantee portfolio.
Once the portfolio is selected, we distribute the first round of funding; each Co-Lab lasts for three to five years, and new philanthropists can join at any time. We dedicate that multi-year period to fostering genuine relationships between donors and grantees, monitoring real-world change in a way that is “pro-grantee”, and taking yearly Field Experiences to experience the work firsthand.
Our Co-Lab’s are founded upon collective action, guided by experts and local leaders, and driven by a desire for impact and results. Our model pools resources, leverages expertise, and prioritizes equity at every step, helping to strengthen the systems and relationships necessary to generate sustainable solutions.
We connect donors with academics, experts, peer philanthropists, and impacted communities themselves. Through educational opportunities–like learning seminars, meetings with peer philanthropists and local leaders, and Field Trips–donors are able to deepen their understanding of the issues they’re looking to solve and the promising solutions that exist.
We know our grantees are the real experts. They have a deep understanding of the challenges they’re working to solve and the communities they serve. We therefore provide them with unrestricted, multi-year funding, empowering them to determine where funding is needed, enabling innovation, and allowing for long-term planning.
Grantees often jump through hoops to be considered for funding. We do away with applications and shift the onus of due diligence onto us and our expert partners, allowing grantees to focus on their mission.
We co-create our impact reporting frameworks with grantees, trusting them to develop and track the metrics that correctly capture their impact. By developing genuine relationships with our grantees and jointly evaluating impact, we can assess real-world change without bogging grantees down or undermining their independence.
Each year, we strengthen our grantee-donor relationships during a multi-day Field Trip. We design our Field Trips with equity at the center, recognizing and working through the inherent power imbalances that exist between donors and grantees. Grantee organizations take pride in their work and the positive change they’re generating. By connecting as humans, listening to their experiences, learning from their expertise, and engaging with their projects, we can demonstrate our respect for the work they do and help rebalance power dynamics.
