Across philanthropy, funders are navigating a rapidly shifting landscape. In an increasing number of geographies, legal and financing risks are intensifying for activism, and the gap between localization commitments and operational realities is deepening.
Too often, funders confront these challenges in isolation—within their own institutions, portfolios, and risk frameworks. Yet many of the questions they face are common: how to resource civil society responsibly under constraint, how to avoid shifting risks to grantee partners, how to support regranters and intermediaries without overburdening them, and how to remain accountable to local actors while operating through multiple layers of mediation.
From individual struggles to collective learning. Creating spaces for collaboration and peer-learning among funders is crucial to collectively reflect on what responsible, effective investment looks like, or to explore alternative localization pathways together.
In this context, and in line with the Trust, Accountability, and Inclusion Collaborative (TAI) mandate to serve as a platform for donor learning and action, TAI launched a Community of Practice (CoP) on resourcing civil society as a space for philanthropic funders to move from individual solutions toward collective reflection and action. Unlike other existing spaces, this CoP is intentionally designed as a funder-only safe space—not to close off dialogue, but to enable trust and honest exchange among peers facing similar responsibilities and pressures. These conditions are critical for learning that goes beyond surface-level alignment and into deeper questions of practice, adaptation, and accountability.
At the same time, this space is not inward-looking. While participation in the CoP is limited to funders, the conversations it hosts are meant to be informed by the broader civil society ecosystem facing similar challenges. The CoP seeks to surface and grapple with questions that matter for civil society actors, intermediaries, fiscal hosts, and movements, even when those actors are not directly at the table.
A space for exchange, reflection, and peer learning. Since its launch in October 2025, the CoP has functioned as a space for exchange. Rather than starting from predefined solutions, funders have used the platform to compare experiences, identify common tensions, and learn from one another’s approaches across different contexts.
Through these conversations, participants have begun to collectively map the challenges they are navigating: the growing reliance on fiscal sponsorship and what it means for infrastructure and safeguarding; the limits and unintended consequences of existing legal and compliance frameworks; the need to adapt funding practices and find creative mechanisms to channel resources in the context of increasing constraints imposed by state and non-state actors on public participation ; and the role of collaboration, pooled funding, and participatory approaches in reaching more grounded and diverse actors.
Importantly, these themes surfaced through peer learning—funders listening to one another, recognizing patterns, and naming shared uncertainties. This kind of collective sense-making is in high demand among funders, and this is precisely what this CoP aims to support.
TAI’s role in this process is that of a convener and connector: holding space, facilitating exchange, and helping ensure that learning is grounded in accountability, inclusion, and Global South perspectives. The CoP is not about prescribing models, but about strengthening the field’s collective capacity to reflect, adapt, and act more responsibly.
An open invitation. If you are a philanthropic funder navigating these questions and looking for a space to learn with peers, we invite you to become part of this Community of Practice.
And if you are part of the broader ecosystem—an intermediary organization, civil society actor, researcher, or practitioner—and there are issues or perspectives you believe funders should be considering in this space, we would be grateful to learn from your experiences and insights.
This work is for all interested funders. Reach out at [email protected] to join the conversation.