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Introduce your full organization’s needs to support objectives, even if the grant is structured as a project. Define for your funder what “flexible funding” means to you, the ways it will be used, to eliminate confusion. Equip regrantors with data to make the argument to their grantmakers for longer-term funding.

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Tell your program officer that you’d value presenting your work to the board and prepare to show the positive impact of general operating support on advancing your shared mission as well as realistic timelines for change.

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Get one of your multi-year, flexible funders to share their experience with others; invite funders to meet with you as a group to discuss long-term objectives (e.g., CEO Sixto Cancel of Think of Us routinely does this). Be candid at the outset about what helps and hinders.

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Tell the longer story when reporting on a project (the broader goals, interventions, and impact) to inspire your funder to broader thinking and support.

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Let your program officers know what services you value most. Point out where their processes create bureaucratic thickets. Cite examples of funders with whom you’ve experienced less bureaucracy and more trust.

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Provide funders your theory of change and multi-year vision and connect your strategy to both, demonstrating the arc of change and funding required to fuel outcomes versus outputs. If you are invited to complete a GPR, participate—funders that seek feedback take it seriously.

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Sophisticated Cloud 9/10/24 Sophisticated Cloud 9/10/24

Provide funders your theory of change and multi-year vision and connect your strategy to both, demonstrating the arc of change and funding required to fuel outcomes versus outputs. If you are invited to complete a GPR, participate—funders that seek feedback take it seriously.

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Reject restricted funding where it will hobble you, and explain clearly to the funder just why.

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Testify to the need for ongoing multiyear, flexible funding to strengthen your organization for the next crisis and build resilience through retaining staff, building skills, and developing creative contingency and response plans.

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Hold regular update calls with funders to grapple with issues and share the impact of long-term flexible grants, like MacKenzie Scott’s, to inspire other funders. Join or create ecosystem networks to strategically advance the movement to build funders shared understanding of excellent grant practice.

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