Multi-Year, Unrestricted Funding

Long-term flexible funding allows organizations to allocate resources where they are most needed, making room for innovation, emergence, and impact.

Steps You Can Take

• Make commitments for more than one year

• Trust that nonprofits know best how to spend grant money

• Examine who receives multi-year unrestricted support, who doesn’t, and what blind spots and biases exist in your processes

The Difference It Will Make

• Supports the stability of grantee organizations

• Encourages risk taking, creativity, innovation, and emergent action instead of sticking to proposal outcomes that may become outdated

• Supports grantees’ long-term planning by allowing them to project resources and make strategic investments to meet emerging needs

What It Looks Like

“Providing multi-year general operating support provides us with a level of learning that we wouldn’t have in a one-year grant. When we make longer-term open investments, we build deeper relationships and get closer to the ground, rather than getting caught in reporting on a specific program with an outcome. We’re able to talk more with organizations about bigger issues that affect systems change, and how we can be a better partner to our organizations to help them in their journey.”

- Sarah Walczyk, Satterberg Foundation