How we fund

TAI members not only invest in partners who are strengthening trust, accountability and inclusion in societies around the globe, but also seek to uphold those same principles in our own grantmaking. TAI offers a platform for candid, construction exchange around grantmaking practices. Our members learn from each other and hold each other accountable to more inclusive, equitable and effective funders.

Partner support

We help donor members work together to improve grant making practice and
boost collective impact. Specifically, TAI aims to accomplish the following:

Collaborate on selected projects, initiatives, and campaigns that require greater collective action and attention.

Enhance diversity, equity and inclusion practices in our own foundations and in our partners.

Exchange experiences and test ways to enable more equitable funder-grantee relationships.

Expand the proportion of our grantees receiving flexible support.

Improve our use of both financial and nonfinancial tools

Learn from each other (and other nonmember funders) to inform our strategy designs, explore complementarities, and test assumptions

Let the TAI Secretariat know how we can help.

Funder exits

Funders regularly adapt their strategies, which often prompt investment in new issue areas, but also the tough decision to scale back or fully wind down funding for existing portfolios. These funding “exits” are a painful reality, especially for impacted grantees, but also other funders of that field. However, they can be managed in responsible ways.

TAI members use our platform to regularly discuss how to handle exits, to encourage good practice, and to manage the knock on effects for a field. We have been trying to document learnings as in this blog. Are you planning a funding exit? Interested in how other funder approaches? Donʼt hesitate to get in touch.

Participatory Strategy

Our Participatory Strategy Library describes how funders and nonproﬁts have designed and executed their participatory strategic processes. TAI encourages transparent, participatory and accountable funding practices.

Learn more

TAI Resources

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TAI Weekly

TAI Weekly | August Reading Roundup

TAI takes a break from our Weekly but not without offering a selection of thought-provoking books for August.

Blogs/Interviews

Explaining Democratic Decline: Competing Camps, Diverging Solutions

Democracy is faltering across the globe. The diagnoses and prescriptions are all over the map too.

TAI in the Media

Gender equality on empty: How debt, austerity, and tax injustice starve progress

In this new piece for Alliance magazine, Aminah Jasho, Ana Patricia Muñoz, Priyanka Samy, and TAI’s Executive Director Michael Jarvis argue that funders committed to feminist change must look upstream.

Explore Our Resources