April 14, 2005 | Read Time: 1 minute
Collaborative Philanthropies: What Groups of Foundations Can Do That Individual Funders Cannot
by Elwood M. Hopkins
If philanthropy is to become more effective, foundations need to work together to shape and achieve their objectives, writes Elwood M. Hopkins, executive director of the Los Angeles Urban Funders. His book outlines the advantages of collaboration and describes ways in which foundations can pool their resources.
Collaboration is not a new concept in the philanthropic world, Mr. Hopkins notes. He provides synopses of 40 “funder collaboratives” that include AIDS Partnership California, a project of nine foundations that combine their support for HIV prevention; Strategic Solutions, a project of the Packard, Irvine, and Hewlett Foundations designed to strengthen the nonprofit field; and Mr. Hopkins’s organization, a consortium of 30 Los Angeles-area foundations that collaborate on their grant-making decisions.
These collaboratives are a “window into the future” of how philanthropic partnerships can change the field, says the author. By sharing their resources and ideas, he says, foundations can reduce expenses, avoid duplication, and tackle social problems that require multiple skills and specializations.
Mr. Hopkins believes collaboratives can also lead to the development of riskier projects, more-democratic grant making, and greater attention to new and emerging issues.
Sometimes individual foundations set up collaboratives, as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation did to support community-based projects to improve health, the book says. Regional associations, national “affinity groups,” university research centers, and community foundations can also facilitate the kinds of collaboration that Mr. Hopkins says are critical to expanding philanthropy’s influence.
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Md. 20706; (800) 462-6420; http://www.rowmanlittlefield.com; 96 pages; $24.95 paperback; $65 cloth; ISBN 0-7391-1043-8.
