How to Work with Intermediaries
Imagine if a program officer’s reach went beyond one foundation and extended directly to several, maybe even dozens, of funding buckets.
Behold the staff role at a philanthropic intermediary. Award sizes can rival any other major grant, even though the funding source and selection process might remain unknown.
Plenty of your peers are happy to accept checks from these mysterious folks and move on.
Reconsider.
These are not the middlemen of a decade ago. You can make real connections and build meaningful partnerships.
Intermediaries re-grant funds through a growing array of entity types, including:
Philanthropic advisories or consultancies
Donor advised funds (DAFs)
Community foundations
Fiscal sponsors
Giving circles
Pooled and collaborative funds
These represent all kinds of giving vehicles, and their collective growth is burgeoning. Grants from donor advised funds alone generated $46 billion for nonprofits in 2021, a one-year increase of 28 percent. I saw more seven-figure grants coming out of these entities last year than in the several previous combined.
It’s less important to know how each of type differs than to understand how you can be a good partner.
Rules of Entry
I like to think of intermediaries as philanthropy’s bouncers. I mean that in the best way.
Some are designed to keep you out if you’re not on the invite list. Others identify and welcome the eligible. They provide security for the donor. You might see them as transactional, friendly, or aloof.
If you seek the rationale or passion behind your prized award, you’ll be disappointed. You may never speak with the donor. Let it go.
Your point person is an advisor, consultant, gatekeeper, administrator, or collaborator who speaks on behalf of the donor. If you think foundations are hard to navigate, intermediaries are an equally varied group.
It’s worth attempting to speak with your contact as you would a program officer. Unlike the cold call you might make to a foundation, you’ll typically learn about an intermediary when staff contacts you, or after a check arrives. Regardless, you can begin with gratitude and a desire to learn more.
The Heavyweights
When it comes to major grants and gifts, the Fidelities and Vanguards have modified the community foundation playbook. They and other investment houses realize that if they are going to serve their customers well, they need to understand the nonprofits that fulfill their investors’ philanthropic passions.
Staff listen to clientele talk about their altruistic interests and need to be ready with, “If you want to help first-generation college students, let me tell you about SupportScholars….”
Because of the enormous wealth that has poured into these firms, relationships with their representatives pay off more than ever. You can offer to engage with your contacts, and even their coworkers, so that other investors will better understand the field in which you work.
Of course, you will use your organization as a shining example throughout.
The tactic works. One client now hears from a financial advisor multiple times annually, in the form of multiple major grants. Two other clients received invitations to speak in front of groups of the investment firms’ employees. The result can be roomful of, say, 12 people who don’t oversee 12 foundations but hundreds of donor advised funds.
Serving the Family
Plenty of major grants come out of firms less renowned than Fidelity. A soloist can hang a shingle and advise a portfolio of philanthropists. Don’t underestimate the wealth they manage.
Like the advisors who work at the investment institutions, these folks range from administrators with limited roles to professionals who communicate donors’ interests in depth.
They know their clients well, and you can ask them for information that donors don’t readily reveal. From giving preferences to ask amounts to proposal suggestions, their insights can streamline your work. And you just might convey important messaging to the donor, albeit indirectly.
Once these family advisors learn about your nonprofit and see you as a trusted partner, don’t underestimate their ability to facilitate a long-term relationship.
The Mighty Middle
It’s not only the largest nonprofits that benefit. Small and mid-sized nonprofits gain the most from intermediaries designed to
Pinpoint grantees. When foundations don’t accept unsolicited proposals, advisors proactively find them. This is where your nonprofit’s reputation and public communications put you on the radar.
Distribute pooled resources. These can be among the most accessible intermediaries. Many aggregate giving for organizations based on subject matter, such as social justice or climate change. If they don’t have a website, reach out and see what you can learn.
Regrant funds from large foundations. The MacArthur Foundation, for one, invests in partners that know the local work it hopes to impact. These tend to work like one of the above models.
When you can find an email address, send succinct communications. Attempt to connect with the public contact. Ask open-ended questions that allow you to fit into the organization’s culture.
Creativity is Key
The roles intermediaries’ staff play is so varied that you can tinker with some non-traditional tactics. Engage them with those you serve. Offer discussions around a mission-focused article or podcast, especially if the content originated from your organization. Look for angles that will deepen your contacts’ knowledge of the issues so that they can educate their investors in more depth.
Be content to accept some checks without much stewardship. Allow that a philanthropist may simply want to fund your work.