On the first day of WINGSForum 2023, we – Lina Ingles and Matt Reeves from Aga Khan Foundation, Gloria Cid from La Caixa Foundation, Vanessa Stevens from Global Fund for Children, and I – facilitated a breakout session entitled ‘Catalyzing Change and Shifting Power Through Networks’. It was one of the most popular breakout sessions of the Forum with over 65 participants – which says to me that this is a topic that people are highly motivated to grapple with.

The most interesting part of the session was the group discussions amongst the participants. They spoke about the dos and don’ts of funding networks and captured their key ideas on sticky notes. We compiled their ideas but didn’t have time to analyze the together in the session.

A post-session review noted a number of key themes from those ideas about how to best fund networks. These themes focused on how to approach funding such as being clear about why to fund networks and understanding their ways of working. Other themes focused on how to manage funding such as matching funding to those ways of working and not predefining outcomes. Further themes reflect on how funders should act and interact with networks.

At a high level, participants suggested that network funders shouldn’t lead with money. Funding networks is about supporting the network, the collaborative space it fosters, and the members that operate within that space. Funding should be provided thoughtfully based on the network’s needs. Such support is more nuanced than simply throwing money at the network.

Furthermore, the participants were articulate about the need to structure funding to match networks’ unique ways of working. This means providing flexible – ideally unrestricted – long-term funding that underpins process and network needs such as infrastructure, development, staffing, and participation by members.

The read out of the group’s inputs is summarized below with key themes and the directly transcribed ideas from participants listed under each.

DOs

Be clear about why to fund networks:

• Make it clear that networks are a viable investment for CSO strengthening.
• Enabler and amplifier for CSOs.
• Scale impact through investing in networks.
• Understand change as sector wide.
• Consider thematic engagement, i.e. climate.
• Identify what ‘value’ means to you.
• Beware that networks represent people. Invest in impactful programs for their communities.

Understand networks:

• Be patient. Building a network takes time.
• Recognize networks are a ‘how’ for a variety of purposes, e.g., CSO strengthening, inter-sector collaboration.
• Beware of the evolution of networks and how to fund them with this in mind.
• Understand the type of network you are supporting and find resonance.
• Take time to understand that networks are heterogeneous.

Fund appropriately:

• Unrestricted funding.
• Long-term flexible core funding.
• Fund the infrastructure.
• Make a long-term commitment.
• Fund existing networks.
• Fund flexibly without prescribed impact frameworks.
• Always give exit grants.
• Give the real impact time (multi-year funding).
• Give unrestricted funding.
• Give funding towards sustaining the network, e.g. income generation – avoid donor dependence.
• Provide meaningful and dignifying funding – institution development funding, staffing the network, investing in projects that change lives, consider unrestricted funding.
• Consider the full investment required, e.g. network management skills training.
• Give space/time/resources for organizations to be part of networks.
• Fund all the intangible work and different strengths of the network.
• Fund process instead of outputs.
• Allow multi-year grants for sustainability.

Show up in the right way:

• Sharing feedback.
• Check your assumptions.
• Be conscious of your power as a donor when you are a member of a network.
• Be conscious of what kind of space you are using – don’t use a square when you need a circle.
• Listening first.
• Facilitate or coach as opposed to ‘teach’.
• Have greater appetite for risk.
• Listen to what the network wants/needs.

Interact constructively:

• Funders to join the network themselves (participate).
• Agree a clear shared purpose upfront.
• Understand the power dynamics in the network.
• Facilitate strategy sessions.
• Connect networks that can share lessons together.
• Give networks the agency to speak authentically.
• Have a way of sharing and sensemaking together.
• Use rituals for trust and adaptability.
• Name the power in the room – who carries what power.
• Practice health governance – agree how you show up together.
• Make sure those from the context are driving the work.
• Support network efforts not just the Secretariat.
• Reinforce governance in networks to ensure collaboration with donors.
• Establish principles and definitions.
• Governance and the time it takes to be inclusive – consider power dynamics with members, donors, leadership, coordination – and remain independent.
• Connect the donors to the communities to enhance relationships and build evidence collectively.
• Proper governance with inclusive representation from the communities we serve.
• Honest broker that coordinates the network. This organization must have legitimacy and trust from other network members.
• Be open to learning from different groups.
• Invest in innovation, learning frameworks and appreciate when changes need to be made.

DON’Ts

Don’t impose:

• Don’t capture the network by forcing your ideas.
• Funders shouldn’t influence governance.
• Funders shouldn’t impose.
• Do not create forced marriages.
• Don’t succumb to tyranny of time. Give it time to emerge and adapt.
• Don’t force marriages amongst organizations to form a network upon request from a donor.
• Funders shouldn’t fund external consultants.
• Funders shouldn’t hold spaces.
• Don’t impose criteria for target group and thematic area.
• Don’t allow gatekeepers to centralize power.
• Don’t take a lead role in developing the network.
• Don’t perpetuate power imbalances across and among/within the network.

Don’t make assumptions:

• Don’t expect everyone to do the same work the same way.
• Don’t expect or request that network members will deliver the same thing in the same way.
• Don’t assume there is a perfect governance or leadership template.
• Don’t assume that networks are homogeneous.
• Don’t assume a standard leadership structure fits all.

Don’t predefine outcomes:

• Don’t predefine goals and approaches.
• Don’t set predefined and unrealistic outcomes and frameworks of measurements.
• Don’t predetermine outcomes for implementers.
• Stop measuring but also don’t cut what you can’t measure!
• Simplify the criteria for funding and monitoring the work of grassroots networks.

Kerstin Tebbe, Founder of Collective Mind