Hi Scott-

Thanks for your interview and for following up. I had the same thought you did – that this funding opportunity is a great push for collaborative efforts. Though, I don’t have any clarity to add as far as your specific questions about feasibility. Maybe we can find others who do!

I’ll see what I can round up.

Interestingly, this month’s Chronicle of Philanthropy reported Obama’s $50 million fund for innovation (non-profits included!) will require recipients to match amounts of funds they receive. The match amount, though, may be quite high for nonprofits. The article pointed out a potential conundrum, which I don’t see as such:

“The question is, can we figure out among the community-foundation field a way to work together [i.e., COLLABORATE!] so that some community serves as kind of the ‘master’ intermediary and we could break this up into smaller amounts.”

Yes, there is a way…collaboration. The AFC and 3 community action agency examples I talked about are already using these models, and may be poised to benefit from these funds. These models have shown good success in exactly these types of endeavors. The question I have is whether the requirements for the funds will allow such collaborative endeavors?

Part of the issue with the “matching funds” is that it seems to automatically disqualify smaller nonprofits with smaller budgets. That’s exactly why I hope collaborative endeavors among smaller nonprofits ARE acceptable for pursuing these funds.

Any insights on the stipulations surrounding these funds and collaborative efforts to pursue them?

@amyrsward Oh & read your interview w/ Scott, which was great.