If you are interested in the funding approaches used by the nation’s largest nonprofits, take a look at the article “Ten Nonprofit Funding Models” in the Spring issue of Stanford Social Innovation Review. William Landes Foster, Peter Kim, and Barbara Christiansen of the Bridgespan Group have developed a classification of the funding strategies by analyzing organizations in the NonProfit Times “Top 100” list of organizations and Bridgespan’s list of 144 large organizations that were established after 1970.
Can you think of examples of major organizations that utilize these models?
Individuals are the major source of support:
Beneficiary Builder
Heartfelt Connector
Member Motivator
Individuals or foundations are a major source of support:
Big Bettor
Government is the major source of support:
Policy Innovator
Public Provider
Beneficiary Broker
Corporations are main supporters:
Resource Recycler
Mixed Models:
Market Maker
Local Nationalizer
Look for a chart in the article that compares each model’s characteristics, examples, tools, and funding motivation.
The Spring issue also features the articles “Offsetting Green Guilt” by Matthew J. Kotchen and “Creating Social Value” by Philip Auerswald.
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