Building the Relationship Layer

Local organizations should not have to choose between integrity and survival.

We work alongside women-led organizations in the US South and Global South, and the foundations that fund them, to build what has been missing: the relationship infrastructure that makes locally led development last.

Ways to begin →

The further down the funding chain an organization sits, the more transactional and compliance-heavy its experience of the sector becomes. We work to bring the stewardship logic all the way down.

The dismantling of US institutions that funded development and humanitarian aid, and the redirection of European bilateral funding toward national security priorities, has sent the sector scrambling. Many are trying to rebuild what was lost, but we believe that misses the point.

The old system did not work for everyone. The gaps existed before the crisis and the exclusions were structural, not accidental. What we need is not restoration but reimagination. A way of working fueled by authentic relationships, honesty, and the honesty to learn from what doesn't work. A system where organizations can show up as themselves rather than perform a version of themselves that funders will recognize and fund.

That kind of change takes all of us, especially those with tangible power through resources. The opportunity, if we are honest enough to take it, is to build something that actually works for the people it was supposed to serve all along.

The Ground We Stand On

Two structural barriers sit at the heart of why locally led development keeps failing.

The first is the Resource Catch-22. Grants flow to organizations that can already demonstrate success. Those that most need funding face the most complex processes to access it. They cannot compete for the very resources they need to build the capacity they lack.

The second is the Perverse Incentive Structure. When continued funding depends on maintaining a track record of success, organizations cannot afford to be honest. They report what funders want to hear. Funders make decisions based on information curated for their approval. What is actually happening on the ground stays invisible.

Across the US South and Global South, the pattern is identical. These organizations are not held back by a lack of effectiveness. They are held back by a lack of the structural networks and honest funder relationships that would let them lead.

Barrier one

The Resource Catch-22

Grants routinely flow to organizations that can already demonstrate success. This creates an immediate barrier for chronically under-resourced organizations that lack the staff, time, or systems to navigate complex applications. They cannot compete for the very resources they need to build the capacity they lack.

Barrier two

The Perverse Incentive Structure

For organizations that do secure funding, continued support depends on maintaining a track record of success. Fearful that transparency will cost them funding, organizations feel discouraged from being honest about mistakes, shifting strategies, or evolving needs. They say what they think their funders want to hear.

"If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together."
Lilla Watson, Aboriginal activist and educator
How We Work

Three interlocking areas of practice

We work at the intersection of organizational development, fundraising strategy, and funder-grantee relationship building. We are not an intermediary. We work alongside organizations to build their own capacity to navigate and sustain direct funder relationships. The goal is their autonomy, not their dependence on us.

01

Embedded organizational development

We work inside organizations over time, building the internal infrastructure that lets them show up differently with funders. Stronger documentation, clearer theory of change, more honest reporting. The systems built belong to the organization and remain after any engagement ends.

02

Peer network and practitioner bench

We convene practitioners across the US South and Global South who are doing adjacent work in isolation from each other. The peer network is where the learning compounds and where isolation becomes solidarity.

03

Funder relationship infrastructure

We work with foundations to help their existing grantees connect and collaborate, and to build the practices and honest self-assessment that make locally led grantmaking real rather than rhetorical.

About Us

Built from inside the room

We are a collective of practitioners across the peacebuilding, development, and humanitarian sectors who have spent years working at the intersection of organizational development, fundraising, and locally led development. Many of us are women of color, from the US South and the Global South, who have been in rooms on both sides of the funder-grantee relationship and watched the same gap open up in every context, from Jordan to Baltimore to Nairobi, between what funders needed to know and what organizations felt safe enough to say.

We know what it feels like to be assessed before speaking and required to prove legitimacy that our peers are assumed to have. We have worked inside Global South organizations, Northern funders, and large INGOs. We have seen how institutional survival pressures pull organizations away from the local commitments they publicly champion. We have sat with women-led organizations in Baltimore and Nairobi and Port-au-Prince and said honestly: here is what is happening in that room, and here is how we make sure you do not have to reshape yourself into something unrecognizable to get what your community needs.

We were dismissed because we were viewed as too local or fit the profile of a beneficiary. We have worked inside the systems we are now working to change, and that experience is the point.

We also know what it feels like to be on the other side of that table. To sit across from a funder and calculate how much truth is safe to tell. To wonder whether naming what is not working will cost you the relationship you depend on. That is not a hypothetical for us. It is something we have lived, and it is why we know this work has to be done differently.

We believe the era of top-down solutions is over. Real and lasting change comes from networks and collectives, from practitioners who trust each other across geographies and build together. For us, this is not an aspiration, because we have seen it work, and it is what we are currently building.

If you are at a crossroads, questioning whether to rebuild what was lost or take the lessons from the past and reimagine systems that are more equitable and work for everyone, join us.

Ways to Begin

There are two doors into this work.

For Foundations

Every foundation is in a different place. Some are ready to go deep. Some want to understand what is possible before committing. Start where you are. We work in partnership with local practitioners already rooted in the communities we serve. We do not parachute in. We build with people who are already there.

Start here

Portfolio ecosystem scoping

A good first conversation. We map the relationship infrastructure across your existing portfolio, identify where organizations are isolated from each other, and show you what a deeper engagement could look like with real names attached. Produces something concrete and useful regardless of what comes next.

Go deeper

Practitioner fellowship

A foundation or funder collaborative funds a dedicated practitioner to work across their portfolio over twelve to eighteen months, building peer connections between grantees and advocating on their behalf with other funders. Designed for foundations whose grantees need sustained support that program staff cannot provide across a large portfolio.

Go all the way

Full cohort pilot

A fully embedded engagement with five to eight organizations from your existing portfolio. We work inside each one, convene them as peers, advocate on their behalf with funders, and close with a portfolio assessment. The deliverable is a cohort of organizations that are more resilient, better connected, and in more honest relationships with their funders than when we started.

For Local and Community-Based Organizations

The collective is building a peer network across the US South and Global South. If you are navigating this funding moment, you do not have to do it alone.

Entry point one

Connect with the network

If you want to connect with practitioners facing similar challenges in other regions, reach out. The peer network is where the learning compounds and where isolation becomes solidarity.

Entry point two

Share your experience

We are actively listening to what local and community-based organizations need most right now to sustain their work. Your ground truth shapes what we build. Your experience and your relationships are what make this real.

Hands together in community
Connect
For foundations

If any of this resonates, we would like to hear from you. We are in an early phase of development and are looking for a small number of foundation partners who want to build this infrastructure together. The conversation does not have to be about a formal engagement. It can start with a question, a shared frustration, or a hunch that the relationship layer is where the work is actually stuck.

For local and community-based organizations

If you are navigating this funding moment and want to connect with practitioners facing similar challenges in other regions, we want to hear from you. The collective is building a network across the US South and Global South, and your experience and your relationships are what make it real.

info@groundworkweaver.org