The financial resilience collaboration brought together two women’s funds: Women’s Fund Z and Women Fund Tanzania Trust.
Impacto: Conociendo el Propósito de Servir Mejor a los Movimientos
The collaboration helped each participating fund conduct a financial health assessment, which served as a foundation for the subsequent work. Through the collaboration, the funds achieved the following:
- Expanded Financial Resilience Understanding
- Funds developed a deeper, more strategic understanding of financial resilience, extending their conceptualization to include both financial and organizational aspects.
- Adopted Financial Management Tools
- They implemented tools like financial dashboards for monitoring, analysis, and reporting on organizational financial health.
- Strengthened Resource Mobilization
- Through strategic and scenario budgeting, the women’s funds prioritized core funding and strengthened their funding negotiations.
- Diversified Financial Resilience
- Funds explored ethical investments, endowment facilities, and the purchase of office buildings to bolster resilience.
Reflexiones para Fondos de Mujeres y Otros Fondos
1.Power of Comparative Operational Learning
- Peer learning proves effective for strengthening financial frameworks, showing that collaborations extending from programmatic to operational levels can be valuable:
- For example, the funds expanded their understanding of financial resilience to encompass an organization-wide, integrated approach.
- Peer discussions inspired the development of new practices, tools, and roles.
- Structural challenges were reframed from individual failures to a systemic issue of underfunding women’s funds.
2. Importance of Transparency and Reflection
- Peer learning requires candor and transparency, necessitating a deep reflection on financial practices. Explaining their processes helped funds gain deeper insights into their strengths and challenges.
- Collaboration requires overcoming the competitive tendency to keep financial practices confidential, which ultimately fosters greater openness and innovation.
3.Power of Peer Expertise
- Team members can gain confidence in their own skills by leveraging peer expertise. This mindset shift emphasizes that solutions can be found within the group, rather than relying solely on external consultants. However, this approach requires investment in collaboration mechanisms.
4.Embracing a Values-Based, Connected Definition of Financial Resilience
- Financial resilience requires a comprehensive approach, considering the interconnectedness of finance with other areas of an organization’s work. This includes
- sharing financial power and knowledge across the organization;
- integrating financial measures into organizational reporting and planning, such as through financial dashboard reporting at the executive level;
- exploring connections between finance and communications, ensuring accurate messaging with donors; and
- expanding finance responsibilities across roles and clarifying responsibilities in job descriptions.
5.Contextualizing Financial Resilience
- Financial resilience must be adaptable to local markets and contexts and remain values based and responsive to specific legal environments. For example, exploring ethical investments aligned with feminist values and understanding local financial market dynamics was essential for building a diverse financial base.
6.Investment in Tools, Training, and Learning
- It is important to use the appropriate tools and provide ongoing training for staff. However, the implementation of new tools requires careful planning to support cultural change and ensure ongoing reflection and learning.
- The collaboration itself also acted as a training mechanism, with discussions among peers providing informal learning opportunities. For example, one partner deepened their understanding of how to use dashboard reporting during a face-to-face meeting.
- Key tools include
- dashboard reporting for transparency and insights;
- strategic and scenario budgeting to strengthen resource mobilization; and
- sustainability planning, including investments in local markets and creating an investment policy.
Perspectivas para Financiadores
1.Address Underfunding of Operational Expenses
- Women’s funds must be bolder in telling donors about the true costs of underfunding operations and sharing what they’ve learned from past mistakes.
- Donors need to invest in helping organizations achieve financial resilience and support collaborations that foster transparency and learning.
2.Support Transition from Learning to Implementation
- To move from learning to actionable outcomes, donors should focus on the following:
- Internal Capacity Check: Assessing staff capacity and time allocation is crucial before the project begins. Activities should be phased to align with the organization’s workflow and staff availability.
- Focused Support: A coordinator plays a vital role in keeping the project on track, synthesizing knowledge, and fostering relationship building. This support empowers participants to seek solutions from within the group rather than relying on external consultants.
- Regular Meetings: Frequent meetings (every two to three weeks) help maintain progress and manage workloads, particularly during face-to-face sessions.
3.Provide Expertise
- Donors should ensure that funding enables the acquisition of specific technical expertise, while also supporting a mindset shift toward recognizing the expertise within the collaboration itself. For multilingual groups, providing interpretation and translation services is crucial.
4.Long-Term Investment
- For financial resilience projects to succeed, donors must recognize the need for long-term investment in both financial and organizational evolution. This includes providing flexible funding for ongoing collaboration and development.
5.Capacity Building in Collaborative Mechanisms
- It is essential to foster relationships and invest in the internal and external capacities required to sustain collaboration. This involves training participants to understand financial frameworks, adopt tools, and implement strategies that promote long-term resilience.
The collaboration helped funds strengthen their financial resilience by expanding their understanding of financial health and implementing practical tools. The peer-learning environment promoted transparency, shared expertise, and integrated financial strategies across organizations. For donors, supporting such collaborations requires investment in operational evolution, long-term commitment, and an openness to innovative approaches to financial sustainability.