For Funders & Collaboratives

Turn promising ideas into lasting capacity.

Funders are often in a position to see an opportunity before an organization has had the chance to build what it will take to pursue it. You may be ready to invest in a new area of work, help an organization expand its services, or bring organizations together around a shared need.

The question is often what needs to be in place for that investment to succeed.

That is where LaurelRoot comes in.

We help funders and grantmakers understand an organization's capacity before new work begins and identify what will be needed to support it well. When there is a strong opportunity but the organization needs to build before it can grow, we can stay involved beyond the assessment and help make that growth possible.

Our role is not to tell a funder whether an organization is ready or not ready.

It is to help answer a more useful question:

What would it take for this organization to succeed?

See what the application can't.

A grant application tells you what an organization hopes to accomplish. It does not always tell you what it will take to get there.

An organization may have strong leadership and deep community relationships but little experience with the kind of program it is proposing. It may have the right expertise but not yet have the structure or systems to support a larger effort. Sometimes the opportunity itself is sound, but the organization needs time and support to grow into it.

Those things can be difficult to see from outside the organization. They can also be difficult for the organization itself to name, particularly when there is pressure to demonstrate that it is ready for the opportunity.

An outside perspective can make that conversation more honest and more useful.

We look at where the organization is today, what the proposed work will ask of it, and where the gaps are likely to emerge.

The goal is not to find reasons not to invest.

It is to understand what kind of investment will give the work a real chance to succeed.

Support the organization, not just the project.

Sometimes the most valuable thing a funder can support is not another activity. It is the capacity that makes the activity possible.

A new program may need a different staffing structure. A growing organization may need stronger management before it can responsibly take on more work. A collaborative initiative may need a way to make decisions and share responsibility before the organizations involved can move forward together.

Those are organizational questions, but they directly affect whether the funded work can succeed.

LaurelRoot can help organizations work through those changes. We can help turn an idea into a functioning program, strengthen the structures around growing work, develop the leaders responsible for carrying it forward, and build systems that make the work sustainable.

That support can begin with an assessment. It can also continue into implementation when that is what the organization needs.

A different kind of outside perspective.

There is a difference between evaluating an organization and helping it understand what it needs.

We are not coming in to decide whether an organization deserves funding. We are coming in to understand the work well enough to help everyone involved make a better decision about what comes next.

Funders need an honest picture of what an investment will require. Organizations need someone who can ask difficult questions without losing sight of what they are trying to accomplish.

Our perspective comes from having been responsible for the work ourselves. We have built programs, led teams through periods of growth, developed new service models, navigated organizational change, and worked across organizations to create something none of them could have built alone.

We know what it looks like when a promising idea meets the reality of staffing, leadership, systems, funding, and day-to-day implementation.

The work can start before the grant does.

LaurelRoot can be brought in while a funder is considering an investment and wants a clearer understanding of what will be required.

The funding decision may already have been made, with everyone recognizing that the organization will need support to build the capacity behind the work.

Or a collaborative initiative may be taking shape, and the organizations involved may need help figuring out how to move from a shared vision to something they can actually sustain.

Wherever the work begins, our role is to help make the path forward clearer and more achievable.

The goal is not simply to help an organization carry out one funded project.

It is to help leave the organization stronger because the investment happened.

Build the capacity behind the investment.

A grant can create an opportunity.

The right support can help an organization become capable of sustaining it.

That is the kind of capacity LaurelRoot is here to build.

If you are investing in what an organization could become, we can help you think through what it will take to get there.

Let's talk about the opportunity you're considering.