Strategic Partnerships

We are amid an ongoing global polycrisis, facing increasingly complex challenges including greater risk, uncertainty, and shifting global dynamics. Philanthropy has an important role in enabling solutions to these challenges, yet their scale and complexity mean that no single institution has the resources, knowledge, or influence to address them alone. Rather, this moment calls for greater ambition and deeper collaboration across the philanthropic sector.   

HU has long recognized that achieving lasting change requires working in partnership with others. Over the years, HU has engaged philanthropic peers through a range of collaborative approaches, from helping incubate and launch organizations such as the Global Migrant Workers Network to participating in pooled funder collaboratives such as Funders Organized for Rights in the Global Economy (FORGE). HU has also helped foster alignment and collective action through platforms such as the US Africa Futures Summit, Funders’ Roundtable on the Future of Development, and through active engagement in philanthropic membership networks. In addition, the Humanity United Charitable Fund (HUCF) serves as a home for collaborative funding efforts where philanthropic peers can pool resources around shared objectives. HUCF currently houses funds including the Collective Action Assistance Fund, the Borderless Journalism Fund, and the U.S. IUU Labor Rights Coalition. 

Leveraging our resources, Strategic Partnerships shepherds HU’s effort as part of a broader collective of peers working to transform the role of our sector, shift power, strengthen collaboration, and support systemic change led by those closest to the challenges we seek to address. 

We do this work in a variety of ways: 

• Systems Convener: We serve as a connector, listener, and trusted advisor across networks, identifying leverage points and facilitating collaborative action. 

• Grantmaking: We leverage grantmaking to foster philanthropic collaboration by creating opportunities for peers to align resources, share learning, coordinate strategies, and invest collectively.   

• Thought leadership: We work closely with our Strategic Communications team to shape discourse and practice within philanthropy through narrative change, storytelling, earned media, and thought leadership. 

• Relationships: We cultivate trusted, values-aligned relationships with peers to create the conditions for greater collaboration, resource mobilization, and collective action.