Our Story by Peter Brach, Ed.M.
Several of us met from the Worldwide Initiative of Grantmaker Support (WINGS), GivingTuesday, and TechSoup during the Summer and Fall of 2020. We discussed approaches for achieving macro-level results. As more organizations joined the conversations, it became clear that strategically leveraging the reach of broad-impact enablers was key to achieving the kind of progress just described. Some of our network members are umbrella organizations that reach over a million nonprofits in 236 countries. But this reach is vastly underutilized. Even though the collective assets under management among members of philanthropic organizations are many billions of dollars, that represents only a small fraction of the donor population. We must build the engines of the future by equipping all sectors working to better our world to work as efficiently, effectively, equitably, and ethically as possible.
In January 2022, we formalized our group, calling ourselves Propel Philanthropy. We coined the term "broad-impact organizations" (BIOs) that spring. We created this term because our members enable and accelerate social progress using diverse approaches. For example, some improve philanthropic, nonprofit, and social entrepreneur/innovation organizations and individuals, while others facilitate unlocking large amounts of charitable, human, social, and political capital. Still others forge collaborations or build better relationships with governments, improve systems and practices, provide education and training, increase public trust, influence legislation, build enabling environments, and support underrepresented populations. Collectively, the combined impact creates a more equitable, just, and inclusive world.
By June 2022, we had built a mailing list of 65 representatives from 40 broad-impact organizations. Some of the most well-known that have participated in our discussions, including The Philanthropy Workshop, the National Council of Nonprofits, the Council on Foundations, GivingTuesday, the Worldwide Initiative of Grantmaker Support (WINGS), Candid, Charity Navigator, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, Women Moving Millions, Synergos, Nexus Global, Center for High-Impact Philanthropy, Dasra, the Global Philanthropy Forum, Alliance Magazine, and Generation Pledge.
Achieving Change Together
We seek to inspire a move from the "ought to fund" to the "want to fund" mindset. Asking funders to make doable pledges such as 1-2% of their grantmaking budget is a pragmatic part of our approach. However, we also seek to inspire support by creating a vision of what might be possible by fortifying the connective tissue our sector has long lacked and collectively defining how we can get there. Given sufficient collaboration, we hope to recruit significantly more private donors to amplify their impact. We want to make serious headway in unlocking significant social capital. As mentioned, there are millions of nonprofit organizations. What can we do to ramp up the performance of this sector? What more can we do to organize and scale innovation? So many questions such as these beg to be answered.
What Some BIOs Have Already Achieved
Confluence Philanthropy was active in building the social impact investment market that unlocked triple-digit billions of dollars. It also helped secure the Belonging Pledge, with close to $2 trillion committed to increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion. Nexus Global has helped members with a collective $750 billion assets under management achieve greater impact with their giving. In different capacities, so have Synergos, The Philanthropy Workshop, Generation Pledge, Exponent Philanthropy, NEID Global, and others. WINGS secured over 500 Foundation signatures pledging to act on climate change. The SDG Philanthropy Platform has worked with governments, from local municipalities to leaders of countries. The Council on Foundations, the National Council of Nonprofits, and others have impacted significant legislation, including eliminating the excise tax on nonprofits and influencing the allocation of billions of dollars of funding from the Biden Administration toward nonprofits during the Covid-19 pandemic. Dasra has reached many donors and nonprofits across India.
And We Can Do More
Except for one, every BIO contacted believes its organization could achieve far greater results if adequately funded. Therefore, we encourage you to take the journey with us to learn together how we can realize macro-level results by leveraging the unparalleled reach of broad-impact organizations.
Propelphilanthropy.org will go live this August!
