The Beacon Collaborative 
Has Levelling-Up missed an opportunity in not engaging philanthropists?
Funders Collaborative Hub: A platform for donor collaboration
Throughout Covid, we saw extraordinary levels of philanthropy collaboration, enabling amazing things to happen. Inspired by this – and seeking to build upon it – the Association of Charitable Foundations has established the Funders Collaborative Hub (FCH). Jim Cooke, Head of FCH, elaborates for us…
What is the Funders Collaborative Hub?
Funders Collaborative Hub helps funders achieve more together. It’s free, and open to anyone who gives funding to make the world a better place, whether as an individual philanthropist or through a grant-making organisation.
Why was the Hub created?
As funders rose to the challenges brought about by the pandemic, many of them saw the benefits of increased connection and collaboration.
More awareness of each other’s activities enabled them to avoid duplication and identify gaps, while working together to simplify grant processes helped reduce administrative burdens for charities seeking funds.
Looking beyond Covid, funders increasingly recognise that to tackle big, complex issues, such as the climate emergency, collective action can be more effective than lots of disconnected smaller-scale activities.
Many are also keen to work together to improve their own practices as funders – from how they invest their capital to how they become more equitable and inclusive.
The Funders Collaborative Hub was designed to encourage all funders to consider how collaboration might benefit their philanthropic missions – and to offer information, inspiration and tools to help them pursue these benefits in practice.
The Funders Collaborative Hub currently features more than 80 collaboration opportunities.
How does the Hub work?
The Hub allows funders to share and find information about collaboration opportunities. We currently have more than 80 opportunities listed on our website and more are being added every month.
Many of these are established collaborations that are open to new funders getting involved, or have learning to share. There are also some emerging opportunities, with funders inviting their peers to explore potential new areas of collaboration.
Success stories
The Hub also features a collection of collaboration case studies, sharing funders’ successes, challenges and learning.
These range from the Match Trading Task Force, which brings together funders who are innovating to support social enterprises, to the Just Foundations Initiative, a group of foundation leaders working to advance racial justice in their organisations.
Stories like these provide lots of ideas and inspiration for funders who want to maximise the benefits of collaboration. We’ve also distilled the learning from all the funders we’ve worked with, into a set of practical tools for developing and stewarding successful collaborations.
How do donors get involved?
- Visit the Hub to explore collaboration opportunities, which can be filtered by issue or location to find those most relevant to your interests as a donor.
- Join the mailing list to keep up-to-date with new collaboration opportunities as they are added, via our monthly newsletter.
- Share your story about an existing collaboration you’re involved in, or an emerging opportunity that you’d like to add via our ‘Share What You’re Working On’ form.
- For other enquiries, drop us a line at funderhub@acf.org.uk