In this Funder-to-Funder Conversation, Kari McCann-Boutell of the Iowa Council of Foundations (ICoF) shares the results of ICoF’s recently released Co-Funding Report that shares their experience over the past eight years of working with the Iowa Campaign for Grade-Level Reading. The report outlines the process that ICoF undertook and the lessons learned around a specific set of questions:

1. How can funders come together around an issue?
2. What happens when funders align to support shared goals?
3. What if they support those goals with grantmaking resources but also with time, skills and leadership?
4. What if a philanthropy-serving organization (PSO) broadens the vision of its role, in both serving and guiding the network?
5. And what happens when these organizations choose the long view of short-term success?

The report also answers questions originally identified by the ICoF Education Funders Group in 2013, which can be found in this earlier report.

Terri Clark and Erin Goodman share the story of how Read On Arizona came together and how funding partners originally envisioned the model and where the initiative stands today. Clark and Goodman discuss the challenges of leadership changes at funding partners and how the infrastructure built by Read On Arizona has mitigated loss of momentum while navigating these changes. Of particular note is the sustainability planning that has been underway for two years and resulted in a sustainability plan through 2030.

Goodman notes the important elements of sustainability planning, saying: “Anything you can do in your organizations to think about sustainability in terms of sustained attention, sustained involvement and sustained understanding and commitment. That’s also really important.”

Susan Patrick of United Way of Southwest Virginia reflects on the work of both Iowa and Arizona and shared the model of the Southwest Virginia United Way. The work has been formally underway for four years and is organized in a collective impact model. Patrick shares some of the specific initiatives underway and stressed the importance of building and sustaining relationships with all partners in the work.