How we strengthen the capacity of our grantees

by Adriana Craciun, senior advisor for organisational development & capacity building

As a donor, Oak Foundation wants to invest in our grantees. We want to help them strengthen their internal organisational capacity and thus become more resilient and effective so they can weather crises.

One way that we support our grantees’ capacity strengthening is through core support. This means unrestricted funding, which is a way to provide organisations with the flexibility they need to use the resources in the ways they consider the most impactful. Core support gives them the ability to use resources where, and when, they are most needed.

Normally core support covers longer term capacity needs, such as the true costs of operations, IT, leadership and management, communications, monitoring and evaluation, and infrastructure. By providing core support grants, Oak empowers grantees to plan strategically, focus on long-term goals, fill funding gaps, build reserves, and deliver enhanced programmes and services to the communities they serve. This flexibility boosts their financial security and enables them to amplify their impact.

Below we outline the various ways we support the capacity strengthening of our grantees:

1. We support capacity strengthening by highlighting it as a specific objective within project support grants, as agreed with the grantee. That way, some funds are set aside within the grant objectives to ensure that these capacity strengthening goals are taken care of. These are generally capacities which can be addressed through time limited interventions, such as: developing a strategy; strengthening the Board; attending to security issues; and training staff.
2. When it is not possible to include money for capacity strengthening into the core or project grant, we sometimes provide an additional grant, through a special fund managed by an intermediary partner or directly. These are generally grants of up to USD 30,000. They aim to help organisations address urgent or time sensitive needs, such as covering for unexpected leadership transitions, legal challenges, or adapting to a new external context.
3. We connect grantees with consultants who have expertise in areas where our grantees need support. Oak covers the cost of this, and we have a long-standing relationship with several expert training organisations, including, for example, The Kairos Project, a network of coaches worldwide that works in multiple languages. If you think that you can benefit from coaching support, please reach out to your programme officer for more information.
4. We provide support by facilitating peer exchanges between grantees. Currently we have a project managed by Resource Alliance which is building the resource mobilisation capacities of 20 grantees in Africa. The programme creates a Community of Practice where participants co-design their learning experiences, access training, share expertise, and engage in peer support.
5. We help recommend and fund training courses for our grantees to participate in, and we share resources that allow them to build skills and knowledge.

These are some of the ways we support capacity strengthening for grantees. We strive to be responsive and ensure that Oak grantees feel well-supported in their organisational development journeys. You can find out more on our website. Otherwise, if you are an Oak grantee and think you can benefit from capacity strengthening support, please get in touch with your assigned programme officer.