Back in 2019, 14 Arizona philanthropic groups came together and made a three-year funding commitment called Arizona Together for Impact (ATI). This statewide pilot initiative became a $1.5 million fund with a goal of improving organizational effectiveness in the state through collaborations and strategic partnerships. It’s a funder collaborative and one of six similar collaboratives operating in other parts of the U.S.
Before time runs out on getting support from ATI, here are a few important facts to know.
The key players
The leader behind ATI is Nora Hannah, a lifelong Arizona resident and nonprofit sustainability advocate. She was previously the CEO of Experience Matters, an organization focused on engaging adults over age 50. She has also been the CEO of a national real estate information company and has experience with start-ups, organizational leadership and finance.
Here are the Arizona-focused foundations that have provided funding for ATI’s activities so far. Additional funders have joined the effort since ATI was first launched.
Arizona Community Foundation
Bidstrup Foundation
Burton Family Foundation
Community Foundation for Southern Arizona
Flinn Foundation
Hickey Family Foundation
Ingebritson
Kiita Foundation
Legacy Foundation of Southeast Arizona
Lodestar Foundation
Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust
Northern Trust
Salt River Project
Satterberg Foundation
Steele Foundation
Valley of the Sun United Way
Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust
Vitalyst Health Foundation
Wells Fargo Foundation
Whiteman Foundation
Backing nonprofit collaboration
ATI is interested in supporting collaboration and forming strategic alliances between nonprofits to maximize their impact in Arizona communities. There are four types of formal collaboration that ATI considers funding. First, it funds associations made by formal agreements when organizations’ governance remains separate. Second, it backs projects in which groups work together to deliver a program over a period of time. Third, ATI funds shared support functions when organizations contract with each other to jointly hire a third party to handle accounting, HR, IT or administration. Finally, it supports mergers that legally link two nonprofit organizations, including affiliate and subsidiary structures.
How to get funding
The process of getting grant funding from ATI starts with two or more nonprofits coming together to discuss how they can collaborate. ATI provides funding to help with the cost of these initial conversations. At that point, the nonprofits can contact ATI to get the help of a consultant and request funding for some of the exploration costs. If a permanent collaboration is agreed upon, funding is available for the costs of implementation. ATI provides a document with grant guidelines on its website.
What’s next?
When ATI formed in November of 2019, it was designed to be a three-year initiative, which means it could cease to exist before the end of 2022. At the time of writing, the ATI team is not publicly sharing information about future plans for the collaborative beyond these first three years. It is unclear at this point whether the collaboration will renew its current commitment, revise its strategy or disband entirely after the three years have elapsed.
Subscribe to the ATI newsletter to keep up with future developments, or browse the news section of ATI’s website to get a sense of where this organization is headed. In the meantime, check out additional information about Arizona Together for Impact in our Southwest funding guide.