Working together to increase impact and lessen the burden on grantees
We believe that one of the best ways we can advance our mission is to work with other funders to advance shared goals. We can accomplish more together when we can complement each other’s funding strategically.
It’s in this spirit that we were thrilled to partner with the Green Family Foundation throughout the process of developing and administering a recent Request for Proposals (RFP) focused on helping Southeastern Pennsylvania access federal climate, environmental justice, and infrastructure funding through our Democracy and Civic Initiatives program. By partnering on this RFP, we reduced the burden that applicants face when applying to multiple funders, enabled non-profits to share their work with new funder audiences, and coordinated philanthropic investments for greater impact.
Here’s what we did:
When developing the RFP, we consulted with the Green Family Foundation (GFF) to ensure that the opportunity would align with GFF’s priorities.
In the RFP itself, we let applicants know we would share proposals with other interested funders, including Green Family Foundation.
When proposals came in, we created a system for sharing proposal materials with other funders and convened a small group of fellow funders to share information about proposed projects. Some other funders are following up with applicants as a result.
WPF and Green Family Foundation reviewed proposals according to our respective criteria, and then conducted joint site visits/meetings with applicants.
We brought a final list of grants forward to our respective boards within one day of each other.
As a result, of the 13 grants awarded through WPF’s Accessing Federal Funding for Climate, Environmental Justice, and Infrastructure RFP, 6 also received $100,000 each from the Green Family Foundation. These organizations are: Energy Coordinating Agency, Generation180, Green Building United, Institute for Market Transformation, New Ecology, and the Philadelphia Energy Authority.
Grantee Pat Coleman, Principal Director of Smart Climate Communities at New Ecology, has shared, “The collaborative proposal and interview process was a tremendous help to New Ecology. It enabled us to efficiently present our work for consideration by a broader audience of supporters and facilitated insightful, collaborative feedback to hone our efforts for greater impact.”
Sam Green from the Green Family Foundation let us know, “Partnering with the William Penn Foundation was invaluable for us as an emerging funder in this space. William Penn Foundation's experience, coordination, and leadership enabled us to align our funding with theirs, amplifying the impact of our grants.”
We were thrilled to work in partnership with Green Family Foundation to support these grantees jointly and hope this approach can serve as a model for future funder collaborations!
For questions about these awards, contact Cara Ferrentino ([email protected]).
For questions about the Foundation’s regional funder coordination and collaboration goals, please contact Jessica Richards ([email protected]).