With 800 million people living in poverty in India, social change is not an option but a necessity, says the team at Dasra.

“Given the scale and complexity of challenges in India, the government, private sector, and civil society are increasingly recognizing that they need to join forces to make a significant impact,” said Neera Nundy, co-founder of the strategic philanthropy foundation, explaining how Dasra brings stakeholders such as entrepreneurs and funders together on common platforms, on the website of a new initiative that takes a similar approach. “Our hope is that this approach of high-impact collaborative philanthropy will soon become widespread in India and other parts of the world.”

Recently, a group of leading philanthropists including Bill and Melinda Gates and Jeff Skoll announced Co-Impact, a philanthropic effort that is like Dasra, but aims to work across the developing world, beginning with $500 million worth of investments to advance health, improve education, and provide economic opportunity. It aims to serve as a new model for collaborative philanthropy. Co-Impact will connect established and emerging philanthropists and social change leaders with each other, provide systems change grants of up to $50 million over five years, and leverage additional support through partnerships with others in the public and private sector.

More Than Money

Olivia Leland, the founder and CEO of Co-Impact, was formerly executive director of the Giving Pledge, a campaign that asks billionaires to give more than half of their wealth to philanthropy, founded by Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett. But while the Giving Pledge was focused on how much donors give, Co-Impact is organized around the question of how they give, with an emphasis on collaboration, long-term support, and partnership with other actors, including local communities, nonprofit organizations, governments, businesses, and donors.

One question Leland is asking herself — and one she hopes to engage with the global development community around — is how philanthropy can most effectively partner with and leverage additional resources from development institutions, multilaterals, and governments. With the exception of a small number of efforts — among them Blue Meridian Partners, a partnership of philanthropists focused on solving problems faced by children living in poverty in the U.S. — most of the philanthropic sector is focused on scaling individual effort.

One of the key questions Co-Impact will face moving forward is how to measure its effectiveness and report its specific impact back to its donors while still recognizing that it is part of a much broader system.

Read the full article about Co-Impact and the effort to change systems globally at Devex International Development.