Launching an ambitious pooled fund

A group of leading philanthropic donors wanted to fill a critical funding gap by supporting community-based organizations working to end child marriage. But it was overwhelmed by the complexity of building those partnerships. Donors wanted to leverage their collective investments and create a way for others to join their efforts but weren’t sure how. 

Finding a time-sensitive solution in a pooled fund

It was clear that the transactional burden on each donor to build relationships with hundreds of grassroots reformers in multiple countries was much too hard. Instead, Geneva Global assisted in the creation of a fit-for-purpose pooled fund, which helped the donor group accelerate the deployment of critical philanthropic capital.  

We rapidly stood up the Girls First Fund as a philanthropic fund within Capital for Good USA, a U.S. 501(c)(3) public charity, rather than form a new nonprofit entity. With core operational infrastructure in place, we facilitated strategy workshops to drive key conversations and gain consensus among the eight founding partners, laying the groundwork for the development of the fund’s goals, objectives, vision, mission, and values. We also ensured a smooth fund startup by supporting the hiring of its director and program advisors as well as managing the fund’s financials. In parallel, our team worked closely with the founding donors to develop the fund’s theory of change and learning framework. 

Driving results, with agility

Within the first years of the fund’s creation, we facilitated the granting of more than $11 million to 175+ grantee partners, 85% of which were women- and girl-led organizations. Simultaneously, we positioned the fund for further growth and autonomy by handing off day-to-day staffing and program management to the fund’s full-time management team, pivoting the relationship to one of a fiscally sponsored project of Capital for Good in January 2022.