“We have experienced what it’s like to release any assumption that one person has all the skills needed to lead and support the work.”  

In her article “Transforming Ruckus: Actions Speak Louder,” adrienne maree brown (stylized)—activist, thought leader, community organizer, social justice facilitator, and New York Times bestselling author—recounts her experience as the Executive Director of The Ruckus Society, a nonprofit that “sponsors skill-sharing and nonviolent direct action training.” Sharing what she learned, brown calls on us to embrace collective action, reminding us that transformative work is bigger than any one person.

And yet, truly transformative work feels out of reach for many leaders in the sector. Our current system, with its small budgets, smaller teams, and competing priorities, makes genuine collaboration (transformation > transaction) difficult to realize. As one regional leader shared, “I think more organizations could come together to fund various trainings and learning opportunities…, rather than it being siloed and duplicated.” While the call for collaboration across the sector is clear, what remains uncertain is how we will co-create the ecosystem to support it, and who will take the lead. 

This is why the decade-old quote resonates across today’s nonprofit and philanthropic sectors–nonprofit leaders are working in a fragmented system that no longer meets the needs of the moment. Yet the cracks in this system reveal an opportunity—an invitation to reimagine how we work together, to move from isolated to collaborative efforts. With the rise of approaches like Trust-Based Philanthropy, and a growing interest in building philanthropic infrastructure, the sector is primed to make a shift towards an era of increased collaboration, where resources are shared, relationships are prioritized, and collective strength replaces individual competition.

Understanding the Challenge   

Over the past few years, as nonprofits have navigated volatile political and economic landscapes, topped with a strained workforce, they’ve candidly shared their concerns. One nonprofit leader from the Greater Philadelphia region expressed their frustration, noting that, “It's very hard to feel like I am solving any problems because things keep happening that are beyond our control. Our space issues, ever increasing demand for our services, shrinking resources...”.

Offering greater insight into these frustrations, Drew Lindsey, Senior Editor of Special Projects for The Chronicle of Philanthropy, writes in 2023 that “Organizations are struggling to manage financially, with nearly half of nonprofits seeing a decrease in net income in 2022 thanks to growing expenses and decreases in government appropriations; At the same time, the need for services is stuck well above pre-pandemic levels.”

And Lindsey’s not the only one to share downward trending observations about the current system. As one regional funder, reflecting on grantees’ experiences navigating the sector, describes it, “[the system is] siloed, challenging to navigate, and suffering from an absence of a hub for nonprofit resources, information, and sector advocacy.”

As the call for change becomes louder and more urgent, leaders in the region have been increasingly confronted with the idea that nonprofits are facing a system marked by duplication and disconnection; limited resources are difficult to obtain, efforts are repeated, and inequities are unacknowledged and unaddressed.

Thus, in 2024, in an effort to answer their community’s calls, a group of grantmakers in the Greater Philadelphia region sought to create an initiative that built on our region’s key providers and assets, resulting in the creation of the Coordinated Capacity Strengthening Initiative (CCSI). 

Coordinating for Impact

“[We need] better coordination among funders - funders should work 

together to streamline what’s available and avoid creating unnecessary 

burdens on nonprofits.”

-Nonprofit leader

Recognizing the need to learn more from nonprofit leaders about what they need the most, the CCSI team set the foundation for the initiative by engaging more than 100 participants across the five-county region. As one nonprofit leader shared plainly, “[We need] better coordination among funders–funders should work together to streamline what’s available and avoid creating unnecessary burdens on nonprofits.” 

The clarity of that message reflected a broader, national theme. To better understand how the sector has responded to leaders’ concerns, the CCSI team conducted a landscape scan of emerging capacity-building models and best practices.

Combining learnings from the landscape scan and regional conversations, three core goals for the initiative were identified: 1) Expand access, especially for historically marginalized and under-resourced organizations, 2) Improve efficiency, reducing confusion and duplication of available supports, and 3) Increase quality, ensuring supports are aligned to nonprofit leaders’ most pressing needs. 

Building on these goals, the CCSI team began shaping a vision for what a coordinated system could look like for the Greater Philadelphia region. Rather than creating something new, the focus was placed on expanding existing efforts, resulting in an initiative that approaches the work from four key angles:

• Curation & Navigation

• Convening & Coordination

• Capacity Strengthening Grantmaking

• Ongoing Learning & Impact

Together, these four elements create a model designed to move our region closer to what the initiative knows is possible; a nonprofit ecosystem where leaders can more easily access the supports they need.

Calling All Changemakers 

So what’s next? We’ve done the research, identified the goals, and laid the groundwork; yet the road ahead is long, and the work remains significant. As adrienne maree brown reminds us, no single person can (or should) lead this type of effort alone. That’s why, as this next phase begins, the CCSI team is eager to hear, and learn, from you.

In September, CCSI issued a call for a Coordinating Organization–the backbone of this initiative. This step marks the transition from vision to practice, ensuring the work is not only imagined collectively, but also supported and sustained by the community. Once selected, the Coordinating Organization–whether a single organization or multi-organizational partnership–will guide the effort by convening partners, supporting nonprofits, fostering collaboration, and advancing equity across the sector. A central part of this role will be co-developing an approach to shared leadership and ownership of the work—a foundation that provides clarity, accountability, and collective stewardship across the initiative. But agreements alone can’t drive transformation–lasting change depends on the active involvement of nonprofits, funders, and capacity-strengthening providers who are willing to share not only their expertise and insight, but also their resources–financial, relational, and organizational–to reimagine a sector that truly reflects and responds to the needs of its community. 

For this reason, CCSI was intentionally designed to emphasize collective action, centering the voices of those most impacted by this work. Each leader’s contribution–whether sharing ideas, guiding a portion of the work, championing the initiative, opening networks, or offering support –builds momentum. This is only the beginning; the path forward is still being written, and more voices are needed to help shape its direction. 

Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day 

If you’ve read this far, you may be feeling cautious, or even a mix of cautious and optimistic about the initiative and the road ahead, and that’s okay. The past few years have brought unprecedented challenges to our region, and the world at large—from local and federal policy shifts to global impacts, like the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet these shifts have only enforced what we all know to be true–that systems have deep impacts on real people, and that it takes patience, persistence, and a shared commitment to overcome the systems that no longer work. 

So, whether you’re a funder ready to align and invest resources, a capacity-strengthening provider eager to collaborate, or a nonprofit leader with insights to share, we ask you to join us and act–not in isolation, but together. Through CCSI, we will invest in the structures, resources, and leaders who can carry this work forward and help us reimagine what is possible for our sector. 

Will you join us?