Infrastructure for the work that matters.

We've spent our careers inside the nonprofit and philanthropic sector, and we've consistently seen a crucial truth overlooked on both sides. Nonprofits are businesses, and they need the same fundamentals as any for-profit business: finance, operations, administration, and data and technology. Funders disproportionately restrict their funding to programs, which are often seen as the visible, impactful aspect of an organization's work. The infrastructure underneath is too often treated as “overhead” instead of an investment, and nonprofits have few resources to pay for it. The result: the organizations doing the most important work in their communities are the least equipped to sustain it.

Everybody talks about data and evaluation. Almost nobody talks about data systems and administration. But that's the work that actually determines whether an organization survives its own good intentions.

We've also watched values-aligned organizations get locked out of funding because of their legal structure, not because of the work they do. Fiscal sponsorship can bridge that gap, but sponsors often charge 5 to 10 percent off the top. Funders rarely provide technical assistance, so organizations turn to consultants, who often cost too much for the groups that need them most.

Nonprofits trying to build capacity run into an unworkable contradiction: you can't bootstrap your way out of being under-resourced. Somebody has to provide the support directly. That's what Hypha Foundation is for.