General Funding

Grants for general funding is a rarity in the nonprofit sector. Time and time again we see restrictions in how grants are structured, requiring detailed narratives of spending. Often before the project has even gotten off the ground.

It is like a third rail no one wants to touch, even though everybody knows that without it, nothing will run.

General Funding is vital. But keeping the doors open are not top of mind of funders.

To me, this is peculiar. If you can’t keep the lights on and the doors open, how can you provide any of the services they’re funding?

At one point in my career, I was working with an organization that had gone through hardship due to a massive storm. They needed to ramp up services to address urgent needs but had no funds to do so since most of their grants were directly connected with specific programs and services. To me, this was a no-brainer. In order to keep the doors open, I made a request to my Board to approve that the organization use the funds that they had in the way that they deemed best. We already trusted this organization to run programs, why wouldn’t they know what best to do in a crisis, how to best serve their clients? 

This incident leads me to an issue that many organizations are faced with. There is an apparent distrust at the heart of some of the disjointed funding priorities currently at work in philanthropy. The unwillingness to invest in the people who are closest to those they serve and know their needs best, is an oddity. And an oddity that doesn’t serve any purposes. 

The changes that are sweeping the world and the philanthropic sector at this moment in time are poised to also address the unwillingness to provide funding where it’s most needed; to trust the people who carry out the work; and a readiness to step up and let a new way of doing business develop. 

So many funders have forgotten to keep an ear to the ground, to listen to those who know what’s happening in their communities; and follow their lead. 

General funding is a way to restore agency to organizations and to allow them to do their best work.

Photo by Stephen Picilaidis on Unsplash.com