Fund for Delaware Collaboration (Collaboration Fund) is sponsored by Fund for Delaware Collaboration. Covers technical assistance to help nonprofits explore or implement sustained collaborations—back‑office consolidations, program mergers, joint ventures in Delaware.

The Fund for Delaware Collaboration is a grantmaking fund that supports formal sustained collaborations between and among nonprofit organizations in Delaware. The Fund for Delaware Collaboration ( t he “Coll aboration Fund”) supports formal sustained collaborations between and among nonprofit organizations in the s tate of Delaware.

These collaborations can range from voluntary back-office consolidations to programmatic joint ventures, to mergers and acquisitions. The Fund seeks to have a catalytic impact on the capacity, effectiveness, and financial health of the Delaware nonprofit sector. WHAT IS A SUSTAINED COLLABORATION?

THREE TYPES OF GRANT AWARDS The Collaboration Fund makes grants to nonprofits to identify and engage experienced technical assistance providers who can support the exploration or implementation of a sustained collaboration. The Fund will support collaboration projects involving nonprofits serving Delaware and Delawareans, regardless of whether they have headquarters in the state.

To assess readiness or begin the process of alignment T o conduct due diligence and assess feasibility of a potential collaboration T o support one-time costs for the implementation of a collaboration F REQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS Who i s eli gible to apply? What kinds of projects are eligible for a grant? Tax-exempt organizations that are based in, or provide services within the state of Delaware.

This includes cases where a national organization partners with a Delaware-based nonprofit, as long as the primary benefit of the partnership applies to Delawareans. Grant support can only be used to cover the necessary one-time, out-of-pocket costs incurred in exploring or implementing a sustained collaboration.

Although these costs may be modest compared with the potential benefits of the collaboration, they often become stumbling blocks, in part because most funding is tied to programs and is therefore unavailable for process/organizational costs. The Collaboration Fund will provide grants to support nonprofits to identify and engage experienced outside technical assistance (TA) providers.

While the Collaboration Fund will not select a given TA provider, it does retain the right to turn down a proposal if the consultant is not deemed to be appropriate for the given request. Will organizations be expected to move through all stages of funding support? No , each type of funding request will be considered independently .

Organizations are eligible to receive an award at each stage of the collaboration process. Exploratory grants are meant to provide organizations with the due diligence support needed to decide whether or not to procede with a collaboration. Will applying for a grant raise a red flag to participating funders?

Longwood Foundation remains agnostic about partnerships and collaborations and believes it is likely there will be more demand for services from nonprofits and less sources of funds in the future. Therefore, it’s logical that new forms of partnerships should be explored and/or executed in the years to come. Applications for Seed and Exploratory grants are anonymized when SeaChange shares information with the Longwood Foundation.

Mergers/collaboration can have implications on other funding sources; organizations should feel free to discuss with their funders if concerned. How much of a project's costs can a grant support? The Fund for Delaware Collaboration aims to defray a meaningful portion of the costs associated with exploring or planning a collaboration.

Seed Grants are capped at $5,000, while Exploratory and Implementation Grants are capped at $30,000 each. These amounts are designed to represent roughly 40-75% of total project costs in most cases, based on market benchmarks. Does the Collaboration Fund assist with identification of partner organizations?

The Collaboration Fund cannot directly assist with partner organization identification or "matchmaking." However, an organization can apply for Seed funding to engage a consultant who may assist with a landscape or network analysis exercise with the end goal of identifying potential partners for the formal collaboration. Are there size or sectoral limitations for organizations seeking grants?

No - the grants are available to all tax-exempt organizations, regardless of organizational size or issue area. Can collaborators be from other sectors when the lead is a nonprofit? Yes - the funding may be used to explore or plan cross-sectoral collaborations.

However, if a cross-sectoral partnership opportunity is applying for implementation phase funding (i.e., the organizations' decision-makers have voted to move forward in formal partnership), the Collaboration Fund can only consider situations where a nonprofit will be the surviving entity. Could a proposal be a pilot program between two nonprofits?

In this scenario, it depends how mature the pilot is and what the necessary costs are to complete the pilot. We would recommend reaching out for an individual consultation to discuss. What if the collaboration does not require sourcing TA?

Could the funding support both of the nonprofits to perform the project together by merging their own expertise (resources, staffing, etc.?) The Collaboration Fund's grant eligibility is limited to the technical assistance and transactional costs associated with exploring or planning formal collaboration.

In situations where there will be no third-party costs incurred, organizations are welcome to utilize the Fund's other resources (advice, educational materials), but no grant support is available. The Fund for Delaware Collaboration is a program led by SeaChange Capital Partners with support from the Longwood Foundation .

Since 2008, SeaChange has been engaged in collaboration grantmaking, managing funds serving New York City, Philadelphia , and Massachusetts , as well as funds focused nationally and on institutions of higher education (IHEs) . SeaChange is also the fiscal sponsor of the Sustained Collaboration Network , a membership association of nonprofit funders and intermediaries dedicated to growing community impact through sustained partnerships.

For more information, please reach out to the Fund's primary contact at SeaChange: Lindsay Kijewski - Partner delaware@seachangecap. org The Fund for Delaware Collaboration is proud to be supported by: Image(s) & icon(s) attributed to Freepik and flaticon. com