Pooled funds provide many benefits, including:
Maximising impact: pooled funds allow donors to strategically maximize the limited funding available in an area, and catalyze results towards a stronger, healthier, and more sustainable field;
Flexibility: pooled funds provide the possibility to make grants of various sizes and types that may be challenging for some foundations to execute directly, including international and small grants;
Maximise learning: pooled funds facilitate the sharing of information and learning as a group about an issue of particular interest;
Easy entry point into a new issue or area: pooled funds can alleviate the administrative burden that might be discouraging to starting up a new grant-making program in-house and provide the opportunity to learn from other donors with more experience in a specific area;
Mitigating risks: pooled funds mitigate potential reputational risks for donors as well as for grantees and avoid that a grantee is perceived as an instrument of a specific funders’ agenda.
Make a statement: pooled funds help donors show the philanthropic sector’s solidarity with a struggling sector or region.