Multi-Year Flexible Funding

Civil society and social movements can use flexible funding for whatever is necessary to achieve their missions— from projects not supported by other donors, to responding to a crisis or opportunity, to even covering basic costs like office rent and staff salaries.

Ultimately, this practice is about trust and power: trust that grantee partners know best how to use resources and power to make those decisions rapidly and in response to community needs instead of spending time negotiating extensively with donors.

MilwayPLUS carried out some research for the Ford Foundation in which they interviewed, surveyed, and conducted focus groups with 30 global funders and nonprofits that had significantly increased their percentage of multi-year, flexible funding over the past decade.

They surfaced five common barriers to making the shift to this practice and practical ways that boards, CEOs, and program officers have broken through and shared power with nonprofits. They also discovered five effective accelerators of change that both funders and grantees rated more significant than the barriers and could speed the transition. Among the accelerators was the adoption of an equity lens on grantmaking.

This practice is best for: funders who are ready to commit long term and support the nonprofit partners and social movements holistically.