Funding for Sustainability

The Health Foundation puts a lot of emphasis on funding sustainable projects. We always have some projects to which our sustainability standards don't apply (such as surveys, planning grants, grants that match other money, policy-oriented grants, etc.). However, we put a high premium on sustaining the programs that we help grantees start. And of course, the sustainability of the grantee's organization is important, too.

That's why we offer capacity building resources to help grantees with project planning, advocacy, fundraising, evaluation, communications, and other topics (See http://www.healthfoundation.org/events/bytopic.html for capacity building workshops). We've tried to structure our grant agreements, evaluations and reporting to help grantees reach sustainability. Our program officers are available to consult with grantees both on sustainability strategies and overcoming bumps in the road. We also use challenge grants in some of our programs as a way to help grantees build up their fundraising skills and successes. We hope that our emphasis on sustainability helps grantees in both good times and bad.

Our interest in sustainable change comes from our desire to use the Foundation's resources to change things for the better - to make a real, long-term difference in outcomes. We like to be pragmatic about all the different ways that programs can become sustainable, where programs are starting from, how long attaining sustainability will take, and when to throw in the towel.

This emphasis turns us away from most emergency requests, requests for things that organizations should be doing as part of their normal operations, and requests to fund continuing operations when there is a revenue shortfall. Looking at the financial stresses shaping up for nonprofits in the near future, we can feel uncomfortable with this approach at times.

But, in uncertain times, should we fund to continue unsustainable operations? We fear that we don't have enough money to hold back the tides, and we might inadvertently enable organizations to avoid hard decisions to respond to new financial realities. We think a better case for funding is to create a new future and make those hard changes. One of our advisory groups told us that if money is tight, they would prefer to see us help fewer agencies, giving them more money and time to achieve sustainability, instead of shaving funding to everyone and underfunding all the projects until no one is likely to sustain the work.

What kind of technical assistance could we be providing now to help grantees (and other nonprofits) to weather this perfect storm? Are there hidden opportunities in this dreadful economy?