The last decade has seen a proliferation of large, unrestricted gifts to high-impact nonprofit organizations working on systems change. For the past three years, Panorama Global has been partnering with these nonprofits to understand the impact of these gifts, particularly the impact of funding by philanthropist MacKenzie Scott paired with funding from either the Skoll Award for Social Innovation, The Audacious Project, or Co-Impact. We have learned that these nonprofits generally use these gifts to strengthen their organization and invest in future, sustained impact. As such, the nonprofits report that their organizations are at peak strength to expand their service area within a year of receiving the gift.
Who Are the Nonprofits?
High-impact nonprofit organizations working on systems change that have received large, unrestricted gifts from at least two of the following: Skoll Award for Social Innovation, The Audacious Project, Co-Impact, and MacKenzie Scott.
We have created this resource to share what we have learned to inform and inspire donors about the powerful leverage opportunity of directing more funding to organizations that have received these gifts. By highlighting the significant potential for major impact, the aim is to build a stronger understanding of how donor investment can amplify the effects of these initial gifts.
The time for donors to act is now. Additional support will ensure that these highly vetted, proven organizations continue to deliver high-impact results and drive transformative change, building on the substantial impact they have already made.
Who Are the Philanthropists?
MacKenzie Scott, Skoll Award for Social Innovation, The Audacious Project, and Co-Impact are results-oriented donors that have thoroughly vetted the current and future potential impact of nonprofit organizations.
Organizations have used their large, unrestricted gifts to address critical needs and strengthen core operations. Investments have been made in operations, infrastructure, financial sustainability, and strategic planning, making these organizations more capable of delivering systems change that can impact millions of lives.
With strengthened capacity, infrastructure, and future planning, organizations are now more ready than ever to deliver high-impact results. Follow-on funding will enable these organizations to expand their impact on an accelerated timeline. New funders gain higher returns on philanthropic dollars because a higher percentage of new dollars go directly to programmatic work, providing greater impact.
The organizations have undergone significant evaluation of their organization’s track records, evidence, operations, teams, systems, and future plans, ensuring readiness for significant funding. Additionally, the funders reviewed and incorporated due diligence reports and recommendations from respected foundations and social change leaders. Organizations selected for multiple gifts have undergone extensive vetting, making them safe and reliable bets for additional funding.
Similar to venture capital, where successful execution and use of initial funding signals a high chance of future success, these gifts have de-risked growth strategies for follow-on investors. As more donors join and give more, organizations grow stronger, enhancing their capacity to deliver impactful results. With increased support, the risks are significantly decreased, making your investment even more certain of having an impact.
With demonstrated capability of managing multimillion-dollar philanthropic investments, organizations have navigated a significant learning curve and applied crucial lessons. Contrary to previous assumptions, organizations can accept and process large-scale giving and do not face absorptive capacity challenges with the substantial financial resources they receive. The flexibility of these gifts enabled organizations to level up their performance and impact. These organizations are now better prepared to leverage future larger gifts effectively.
Many organizations have used large, unrestricted gifts to strengthen the broader ecosystem and social change movements they are part of. Investments have been made in supporting partners, working in solidarity with the government to enhance their vision and capacity, and catalyzing movement-wide change on key social issues. Additional investments will continue to support these broader impacts.
True systems change takes time and requires sustained investment. One-time “big bets” are not enough to transform organizations over the long term. Unlike for-profit businesses, nonprofits do not have “IPO Moments.” Therefore, it is critical for strong organizations to receive sustained investment via multiple, sequential, large investments to act on the immense potential for increased impact.
These large-scale, unrestricted gifts by these funders were transformative but they are just the beginning—a downpayment towards a long-term solution. Many of the organizations selected have meticulously crafted five-year (or more) strategic growth plans with heightened impact ambitions. These plans are backed by detailed financial projections and funding goals. The gifts analyzed cover 10-25% of these goals and were designed to ignite further investment. They are necessary and important, but not sufficient. To fully realize their bold impact goals, these organizations still need to raise 75-90% of their overall funding needs. This funding gap presents an opportunity for philanthropists to have an outsized impact with their follow-on funding.
There is a critical window of approximately three years after an organization receives a large, unrestricted gift in which to secure additional philanthropic funds toward their bold impact goals. Timely follow-on funding not only leverages these transformational gifts but enables organizations to drive hard toward their ambitious goals and solve the whole of a problem. Without this support, organizations risk returning to incremental change and adopting more modest impact goals.
The world faces urgent challenges—climate change, gender and racial inequity, threats to democracy, escalating conflicts, and more. These organizations are well-vetted, ready to lead, and poised to tackle the critical issues they are focusing on.
These large, unrestricted gifts have created an opportunity for donors to change the world like never before. With additional funding, you can support these high-impact nonprofit organizations working on systems change to go the distance.
