With Grants Hard to Come By, Philanthropy Infrastructure Groups Evolve

Philanthropy infrastructure groups — organizations that provide advice to and advocate for grant makers — are in a moment of flux. Nonprofits are reeling from government cuts, and grant makers that are trying to support them are under scrutiny from a hostile Congress and White House. Adding to these challenges, funding has often dipped for these groups. Some have laid off staff and many are trying to find new ways to meet their increasingly urgent mission.

For many of the organizations, 2021 was a high-water mark. That was the year megadonor MacKenzie Scott donated tens of millions of dollars to at least 70 local, regional, and national infrastructure groups. The 26 national groups that disclosed how much they had received got a total $146 million, with contributions ranging from $2 million to $15 million 

In the years since the Scott money rolled in, many organizations have not been able to keep pace with fundraising. And some, including Candid, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, PEAK Grantmaking, and the United Philanthropy Forum, have cut staff in the past year.

In an environment where nonprofits are reeling from billions of dollars in canceled federal grants and contracts, these infrastructure groups have taken a back seat to more pressing priorities, said Ann Mei Chang, the outgoing president of Candid, a nonprofit data organization. Nonprofits that directly help individuals can make a strong case for support, Chang said

“When things get tight, people tend to prioritize the last mile where they’re really seeing direct impact rather than the infrastructure that can enable everybody’s impact,” she said.

As infrastructure groups struggle with finances, they are looking for ways to diversify and increase their revenue streams. Many are exploring working with other organizations in a bid to share overhead costs of things like webinars, conferences, and training.. Some  are positioning themselves to attract new kinds of members, like individual, rather than institutional, donors. Most of all, they are trying to cement the relationships they have with their members by providing things seen as essential.

Nice to Have, Not a Necessity

The reduction in funding is causing some groups to lay off staff. In January, Candid announced it would lay off 42 workers, or about 20 percent of its staff, as it shifted its focus to  data collection and the rise of artificial intelligence. Two months later Chang announced her retirement.

PEAK Grantmaking also reduced its headcount. The nonprofit, which works with foundations to improve grants management, has had a steady membership of 8,000 individuals and 550 organizations. But a fundraising drought in the first part of last year forced it to more than half of its 22 staff members.

When things get tough, making a grant to an infrastructure group becomes a “nice to have” rather than a necessity, said Eusebio Diaz, PEAK’s interim CEO. He noted that a $1 million grant came in later in the year from a grant maker he declined to identify that helped PEAK “get some solid ground beneath our feet.” 

It is impossible to say how much foundation support for infrastructure groups has ebbed over the past year, said Rory Neuner, senior learning officer at the Barr Foundation, which supports a number of these organizations. Neuner, a member and past co-chair of the Infrastructure Funders Group, said while some groups may be experiencing declines, foundations have not made a “radical departure” from their support of the groups across the board.

“I don’t want to make light of the idea that there have been layoffs and they’re unfortunate, but I wouldn’t ring the alarm bells,” she said.

Often in times of reduced funding, nonprofits will merge so they can better weather the downturn. But Neuner doesn’t believe that there will be a wave of mergers among infrastructure groups. Their missions and target audiences are simply too diverse and specialized to be contained in just a few organizations, she said.

“The philanthropy infrastructure space does feel crowded at certain moments, so there may be some opportunities,” she said. “Leaders of some of those organizations are having conversations in meaningful ways, but I don’t think it’s just about mergers.”

A New Wave of Collaboration 

While mergers may not be on the horizon, collaboration among groups is increasing. PEAK’s Diaz is sending feelers far and wide to his infrastructure group peers, looking for ways they can combine their efforts. The Technology Association of Grantmakers is also touting some of the work it is doing with partners.

Last year TAG and NTEN, a nonprofit technology association, produced a training series on the use of A.I. Doing it together was a cost-saver and reduced duplicative efforts, said Jean Westrick, TAG’s president. But it also helped reach a broader audience for a crucial topic, she said.

A.I. is reshaping the nonprofit world, Westrick said, and foundations need the support of groups like hers to navigate the new landscape equitably.

“I hope we can strengthen the entire sector as opposed to having uneven evolutions where you’re going to have very well-resourced organizations that are going to invest in themselves and in their own infrastructure and then other organizations that won’t.”

A big challenge for groups like TAG, PEAK, and Candid may be the nomenclature used to describe them, said Deborah Aubert Thomas, president of the United Philanthropy Forum, a network of local and regional philanthropy groups. For years, they were known as “philanthropy supporting organizations.” 

But “infrastructure” is a better term, she said. Groups like the forum, which has prioritized being a policy advocate for grant makers under her leadership, generate shared intelligence about the challenges facing philanthropy, build networks of organizations with common problems, and help them find their collective voice.

“We’re not supporting,” she said. “We’re leading. We’re transforming the sector.”

The forum is opening up its annual conference to individual donor support organizations in an attempt to attract a broader membership, Aubert Thomas said. Some of its members are exploring becoming fiscal agents for donor collaboratives, something Aubert Thomas did when she led Philanthropy Ohio before coming to the forum in 2024. 

After posting revenue of $5.4 million in 2021, the forum’s annual income declined for the next three years. But Aubert Thomas remains optimistic. Foundation support for nonprofits like hers always waxes and wanes, she said, but the recent rough patch doesn’t reflect a souring on infrastructure groups.

“I wouldn’t say we’re growing,” she said, “but we’re in a good spot right now.”

Focusing on the Mission but Changing the Fee Structure

Exponent Philanthropy is doubling down on the organization’s guiding principle, which is to increase the impact of foundations with small staffs. Paul Daugherty, the group’s CEO, doesn’t think he needs to change the group’s mission in order to attract more foundation dollars. 

In the years before Daugherty became Exponent’s leader in 2022, membership was slipping. In 2017, the group had 1,800 members. Now that number stands at 1,500, but Daugherty said the group has arrested the decline and is adding members each year.  

With membership bouncing back, Daugherty is hoping to better shore up the nonprofit’s finances with a new fee structure. Beginning in 2027, the group will go to a tiered structure, with larger organizations paying more. Daugherty hopes that membership fees will cover 60 percent of the organization’s costs, up from 40 percent currently.

With the revenue from the new fees, Exponent promises to support more regional conferences, create a CEO leadership group where foundation leaders can bounce ideas off one another discreetly, and organize “tailored” one-on-one meetings between groups facing similar challenges.

To make the case for the higher fees, Daugherty said it is important for groups like his to stress how essential those connections and resources are, especially when nonprofits are in a period of great turbulence.
“Infrastructure is like oxygen,” he said. “We don’t understand the value of oxygen until we’re scuba diving, and the tank is running low.”

Correction: A previous version of this article said that the United Philanthropy Forum was opening up its conference to individual donors and that it was exploring serving as a fiscal agent for donor collaboratives. It should have said that it was opening up its annual conference to support organizations for individual donors and that some of its members were exploring the option.