Lessons for funding enduring impact at scale: experience of Co-Impact

• In Event: Scaling and systems change in international education development: perspectives of funders and implementers (Part 1)

Proposal

Co-Impact’s core mission is to help identify and support NGOs in Africa, Asia, and Latin America to achieve: 1) concrete improvements in the lives of people (especially women and girls and other groups of people who have been marginalized), 2) at the scale of the problem, and 3) in a manner that will endure. For us, this leads to a natural focus on work that seeks to improve the public and/or market “system(s)” that is/are relevant to the problem of focus, in a manner that is sufficient to achieve the desired improvements in people’s lives, and with a design and approach such that these improvements stand a good chance of enduring in the system in the long run even as leaders change and philanthropy/aid fades away. The debate between “scaling” and “systems change” feels a bit academic at times, missing one or more of these core ideas. Further, much of the way that philanthropy and aid funding get structured and awarded also directly undermines these goals; with a few critical but feasible tweaks, we have seen that much greater and more enduring impact can be unlocked. This presentation will share experiences and lessons of Co-Impact in contributing to systems change through its education programming in different contexts.

Author

• Abraham Grindle, Co-Impact