Let's Accelerate Progress Together!

Funders Meet Funders

Peter Brach, Founder at Propel Philanthropy, has established a diverse funder-to-funder group which meets on a quarterly basis. We are delighted to share that representatives from the Gates, Hilton, Ford, eBay, and Flora Family foundations have attended meetings. We have also enjoyed attendance from private funders and foundations with endowments from small to large.  

Peter began this group with a conviction that we could achieve exponential progress by investing in broad, cross-cutting solutions. For example, trillions of dollars will change hands by the decade’s end. We certainly have the potential to better prepare for this unprecedented watershed. Today, only 2% of the global financial market is invested in advancing social impact. We have enough resources among us to at least double those numbers to 2.3 trillion dollars by the end of the decade. We can work alongside many more governments. We can significantly improve our capacity to identify and scale best-of-class innovations. These are a few of many examples that could move us from addressing just one or a few to all 17 Sustainable Development Goals. We invite you to read our piece, Imagine The Possibilities and generate ideas yourself. Collective thinking is crucial to our group’s success!

We must bring many more funders into our conversations. Doing so will open new doors and resources. Building a strong collective will help us achieve exponential progress by leveraging the full potential of broad, cross-cutting solutions. All funders, large or small, private or institutional with a self-directed endowment are warmly invited to join our group.

Discovering catalytic SIIOs

The need to build infrastructure is urgent and exciting because doing so can accelerate progress on many fronts. However, we recognise that it can be difficult for funders to identify the catalytic or broad and cross-cutting organizations that will lead to an accelerator or multiplier effect. Peter has dedicated the last 5 years of his funding career to just this, and offers this advice:

When asked how I find the right opportunities, I advise that it helps to have an active network. Mine has been my routemap. If you don’t already have a philanthropy or social investment network, talk to those in the know including associations, networks, donor organizers and community foundations.
– Peter Brach

We have curated a directory of high-potential SIIOs for you to explore. While not exhaustive, we hope it will give you an appetite to get in touch with organizations like these, and others like them, to begin a conversation about accelerating our progress.