Supporting Organizational Capacity: Finding What Works and Making the Case

2011 - PDF

The meeting explored three overarching issues facing funders supporting organizations in Africa: 

• What does organizational capacity mean and how to achieve it?

• What are the expectations and experiences of funding directly or through intermediaries?

• What to consider when investing in organizations when confronted with weak infrastructure?

There was a clear consensus that grantmakers need to make the case about supporting organizational capacity building-both to their grant recipients and within their own organizations. Admittedly, defining and evaluating capacity building are formidable challenges; there is no single institutional model. Consequently, each strategy must respond to the needs of both the funder and the grantee. 

Many pros and cons were articulated regarding awarding grants directly or via intermediaries and no clear mechanism was identified as a universal model. Many ideas for working with grant recipients that have weak infrastructure were advanced. Participants explored variation of these funding strategies and the contentious issues associated with each.  

Full report available for download – Supporting Organizational Capacity – 2011 Retreat Report