Capital Ideas: Moving from Short-Term Engagement to Long-Term Sustainability

The Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University and NFF hosted a gathering of funders, practitioners, and researchers to address nonprofit financial issues in March 2007. This report presents a summary of ideas from the event. More than 50 field leaders came together to voice their support for a fundamental shift in the way funders support the nonprofit sector. Through shared experiences and data, the group affirmed the need for change in the following ways: • to broaden the scope from narrowly focused program funding to funding that recognizes and addresses the financial and organizational needs of the nonprofit as a whole, even if that funder is interested in only one part of the enterprise; • to identify the collective impact of funders’ financial practices on an organization, and adjust accordingly the application, stewardship, and reporting demands made of the grantee; • to move toward sectorwide results-based metrics that encompass both organizational and fieldwide dimensions; and • to lower transaction and stewardship costs by encouraging funders to adopt simplified or standardized reports, processes, and data in order to help the sector focus more resources toward achieving its mission.