Ecosystem Catalysts: Understanding Funding Partners and Shifting Power

An invis­i­ble net­work of ‘ecosys­tem cat­a­lysts’ are key agents in build­ing stronger civ­il soci­eties. Insti­tu­tions are need­ed to sup­port build­ing healthy, resilient orga­ni­za­tions at local lev­els, espe­cial­ly as the world becomes more frag­ment­ed. Fun­ders are look­ing to under­stand more about this space; how best to use dif­fer­ent fund­ing part­ners in prac­tice; and sup­port their devel­op­ment.

Fun­ders, often with lim­it­ed in-house resources, increas­ing­ly rely on a net­work of intri­cate part­ner­ships to bring direct fund­ing to local actors and to par­tic­u­lar issues. Often referred to as ‘inter­me­di­aries’ these net­works can play a pos­i­tive – or neg­a­tive role – in the civ­il soci­ety ecosys­tem. They can either enhance civ­il society’s aims, or they can add an extra lay­er of bureau­cra­cy and pow­er act­ing as an inef­fi­cient ‘mid­dle-man’.

Instead of inter­me­di­aries, we have cho­sen the phrase ‘ecosys­tem cat­a­lysts’ to high­light the impor­tant set of civ­il soci­ety actors who help to build civ­il soci­ety, its con­nec­tions, and in par­tic­u­lar, to help shift pow­er and resources to local actors. This new paper from Rights CoLab pro­vides a typol­o­gy of the range of insti­tu­tions work­ing in this space and explores the func­tions of these ecosys­tem cat­a­lysts along­side the qual­i­ties they should embody in order to build a more equi­table and health­i­er civ­il soci­ety sys­tem over­all.

We hope it pro­vides a use­ful and sim­ple tool to deep­en under­stand­ing and con­tri­bu­tion to strat­e­gy, as well as high­light­ing where there may be gaps in the sys­tem. It’s an iter­a­tive work in progress, and we wel­come fur­ther com­ments! These can be sent to deborah@rightscolab.org

Click here to down­load the paper

Pho­to by Emma Hen­der­son on Unsplash