Our Partners

Our Partners and Co-Funders

SEACHANGE CAPITAL PARTNERS

In 2009, we entered a partnership with SeaChange Capital Partners to jointly support nonprofit collaborations throughout the country. In furtherance of that effort, the partners established the SeaChange-Lodestar Fund for Nonprofit Collaboration to support collaborations. With the belief that collaboration can be a valuable capacity-building tool for nonprofit organizations to increase the efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability with which they pursue their missions, the SeaChange-Lodestar Fund’s mission is to encourage and support mergers, acquisitions, joint-ventures, and other types of formal, sustained collaboration among nonprofit organizations. Learn more.

CANDID

In 2010, we entered a partnership with the Foundation Center (now Candid) to create and maintain a broad-based database of nonprofit collaborations, searchable by a wide variety of categories and characteristics. The Nonprofit Collaboration Database, which went online in June 2010 on the Foundation Center website, provides inspirational and instructive models of collaboration for the sector. The database initially was populated by applications received by the Lodestar Foundation in connection with a project to collect models pursuant to a national contest, the Collaboration Prize. Additional models continue to be added to the database by application to Candid. Learn more.

NYMAC

We are a co-creator and founding member of the New York Merger and Collaboration Fund, a funder collaborative designed to encourage and enable mergers, acquisitions, and other types of formal, long-term collaborations between nonprofit organizations working in New York City. Specifically, the fund supports organizations that have a serious interest in coming together in some way or in exploring how they might by making grants to help cover a portion of the one-time costs required to explore or complete the collaboration. Learn more.

THE PHILADELPHIA REPOSITIONING FUND

The Philadelphia Repositioning Fund is a funder collaborative formed to encourage and support mergers and other types of formal, sustained collaborations in the Philadelphia metro area. We are a founding member of the Fund. Learn more.

THE ARIZONA TOGETHER FOR IMPACT FUND

We are a co-creator and founding member of the Arizona Together for Impact Fund, the first statewide funder collaborative in the country. The Fund is designed to maximize the impact of nonprofits by encouraging and supporting sustained collaborations in Arizona. Learn more.

BOARDSOURCE AND THE POWER OF POSSIBILITY

Lodestar, The Patterson Foundation, and the Lyda Hill Foundation co-funded a BoardSource project, The Power of Possibility, designed to educate members of nonprofit boards about the benefits of building nonprofit capacity through sustained collaborations. The project consists of  a variety of resources for board members to consider in conjunction with their fiduciary oversight duties.

SUSTAINED COLLABORATION NETWORK

Lodestar and the Fidelity Charitable Trustees’ Initiative have co-funded the development of the Sustained Collaboration Network, a network of funder collaboratives from around the country supporting sustained collaborations among nonprofits in their communities. The seed for the network was planted when we underwrote two successive annual convenings of the collaboratives to discuss how they could work together to advance knowledge about sustained collaboration. The centerpiece of the Network is the website, which is a resource not only for the Network, but also for those seeking information about starting collaboratives in their communities, and for best practices and other resources related to sustained collaboration.

Over the years, we have participated in several Arizona-based funder collaboratives, as we believe that funders, as well as nonprofits, can maximize impact by working together. Such projects include the Arizona Nonprofit Capacity Building Landscape Project (a project to support capacity-building for nonprofits in the state), The Summer Youth Program Fund (a collaborative to support agencies providing summer programming for youth) and the Phoenix Neighborhood Development Collaborative (a collaborative including neighborhood representatives who came together to enhance resources in two Phoenix neighborhoods).

THE PHILADELPHIA REPOSITIONING FUND

The Philadelphia Repositioning Fund is an effort to encourage and support mergers and other types of formal, long-term collaborations between nonprofit organizations, as well as dissolution planning for individual nonprofit organizations.

NYMAC

We are a founding member of the New York Merger, Acquisition, and Collaboration Fund, a funder collaborative designed to encourage and enable mergers, acquisitions, and other types of formal, long-term collaborations between nonprofit organizations working in New York City. Specifically, the fund supports organizations that have a serious interest in coming together in some way or in exploring how they might by making grants to help cover a portion of the one-time costs required to explore or complete the collaboration.

ARIZONA NONPROFIT CAPACITY BUILDING LANDSCAPE PROJECT

We are one of a group of Arizona foundations collaborating on a project to support capacity-building for nonprofits in the state.  After identifying available resources, the group will determine appropriate next steps.

PHOENIX NEIGHBORHOOD DEVELOPMENT COLLABORATIVE

The Phoenix Neighborhood Development Collaborative (PNDC) is a collaboration of funders who share a common purpose of improving economic and social conditions in Phoenix’s low income neighborhoods by increasing the impact of community development on neighborhoodsThe funders have come together to have a greater collective impact in two Phoenix neighborhoods to support the will and the work of residents to create socially, culturally and economically diverse neighborhoods by organizing and directing resources, providing technical assistance and fostering collaboration.

THE SUMMER YOUTH PROGRAM FUND

The Summer Youth Program Fund is a collaborative among funders that support agencies providing summer programming for youth in Maricopa County, Arizona. The fund’s purpose is to supplement existing programs in order “to enrich, enhance, and expand summer activities for children and youth.” The Summer Youth Program Fund makes it easier for local nonprofits to apply for grant funding for their summer programming by requiring just one application that is then considered by more than a dozen funders. The Lodestar Foundation provides annual grant funding to cover the costs of the fund’s administration.