Funding plays an important role not only for each organization, but also in terms of creating opportunities to build networks that have a greater impact than individual organizations. 

In Northern Ireland, community development worker Marion Jameson notes that funding organizations such as the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland brought different organizations together, including those working with both the Protestant and Catholic communities. By working with groups across conflict lines, these funding organizations enabled networks to be created, and built connections across communities that were “basically dealing with similar issues.” These connections also served as opportunities for learning and sharing ideas with one another that helped strengthen and grow their work. 

Likewise, in Israel, the Dafna Fund created platforms for collaborative action by bringing together grantees and other feminist groups in Israel for strategic planning sessions, capacity building and knowledge production. Hamutal Gouri, who directed the Fund, notes that this approach has rippled to other funders and that the Dafna Fund left a legacy of “greater collaboration, greater contact between organizations… more platforms for collaborative action” in civil society.

Samah Salaime, a Palestinian representative of Neve Shalom Wahat al-Salaam (NSWAS) in Israel, emphasizes the importance of using funding to engage in changing policy through large-scale coalition work, for example, “to hire lawyers; to arrange big march against the government; [for] the Arab and Jewish who want to live together, [to] just give us the place; or to do an international lobby against the churches to release church land for such a place.” Her comments show that using funding to create strong networks and coalitions can have significant impacts that a single community-based organizations or grassroots initiatives might not. 

An important aspect of creating these networks, especially in conflict areas, is to bring people together not only through funding sources but also in ways that are framed as non-threatening to groups/individuals on either side of the conflict divide. In Northern Ireland, civil society activist Tony Kennedy explained this by noting the significance of language and how a program oriented to “improving attitudes” was changed to “promoting understanding and respect,” because, “They [potential program participants] liked their attitudes, they're comfortable with their attitudes and they're not going to change them.” In other words, while funding can create opportunities for network building, it needs to be framed in strategic ways.

Challenges you may encounter using this tool

• While funding can be leveraged to build coalitions and networks, it can also promote competition between individual organizations or leaders vying for the same pool of funds. As such, funding structures can prevent or inhibit collaboration unless the funders themselves or the organizations they fund emphasize the value of coalitions to achieving the broader social change aims. 

• Funding sources tend to run on relatively short, project-based timelines. As such, they are not sustainable sources of income for long-term projects or multi-generational change initiatives often called for in peacebuilding and social justice arenas. Organizations receiving funding must therefore plan for sustainability, and continued engagement across the coalition or network, long before the funding dries up.

• Funding often attracts both peacemakers as well as individuals and organizations on the periphery of the  action who are more interested in taking advantage of the funding stream than long-term transformation. This can make recruiting committed individuals challenging. 

• Not everyone within a funder network will resonate with an organization’s key messages, so it is important to find non-threatening and less radical ways to make your message palpable to funders and other potential partners in these spaces.