Our core function is making grants to nonprofit organizations. We default to multi-year support and the least restricted form of grant that aligns with our strategy. In addition to core grants, we invest in the success of organizations through organizational effectiveness grants and support beyond our grant dollars — e.g. we open our networks, provide advice as requested, share best practices from other grantees, increase grantees’ exposure, share field resources like our monthly blog, etc. We accept that operating as a supportive grantmaker sometimes looks “boring” by traditional metrics. We share our approaches to philanthropy and create them as public goods in case others find them useful.
OUR WORK
QUICKENING THE PACE OF CHANGE
WHERE WE WORK
Echidna Giving funds work concentrated in four countries: India, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. In these countries, we are building a robust portfolio of grantee organizations and actively seeking opportunities that will impact educational systems and the norms that influence girls' education.
We are also receptive to supporting a modest amount of exploratory grantmaking in five countries: Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Senegal.
We occasionally fund organizations working across multiple geographies when the work impacts at least some of the countries where we focus our grantmaking.
OUR STRATEGY
We see our role in girls' education as two-fold.
First, we catalyze work that promises to fast-track improved outcomes for girls from early childhood through secondary school. We focus on marginalized girls, including girls who are out of school. If the most marginalized have effective learning opportunities, then we can be confident that all children will.
In early childhood, we fund work to support children's readiness for school and to develop their sense of gender identity in ways that do not limit what they see as possible for their education and life opportunities.
Our goal for primary school-age girls is for them to acquire the foundational literacy, numeracy, and life skills needed to continue learning successfully.
In adolescence, we concentrate on the array of life skills and mindsets that help girls succeed academically.
We build knowledge, advance practice, and drive system change for each of these critical windows of girls' development.
Second, Echidna supports a robust ecosystem in girls' education among implementers, advocates, researchers, and champions, advancing equity-enhancing quality education. We seek to propel others to do more and better work for girls while supporting a cadre of leaders across lower-income countries.
Our work aims to increase funding for quality education and ensure that funding goes toward solutions that evidence tells us to work for girls.
OUR PRINCIPLES
We prioritize investing in local leadership and supporting others’ visions for change rather than dictating what grantees should do. We aim to contribute without being controlling: we let grantees take the lead while also asking questions and offering advice where relevant and welcomed. We aspire to incorporate the voices of communities we seek to serve in our strategic planning processes. An Advisory Board of diverse experts in our sector provides advice and input on our strategy and work.
We invest time in understanding what grantees are trying to accomplish, the challenges they face, and the larger context of their work. We respect peoples’ time and are sensitive to the burdens we place on them: we do our homework, do not ask for information that we will not use, avoid bureaucracy, offer flexibility, and take pride in our responsiveness. We share information openly and transparently, including our grantmaking strategy, list of grantees, tools, practices, and lessons learned. We communicate proactively: we actively share information with one another, we encourage grantees to express challenges, if we are worried about performance we tell grantees directly, we say no to inquiries as soon as we know that’s the answer.
We ask for feedback and seek to continually learn as an organization and as individuals. We recognize the value of grantees taking measured risks, even if it means they will sometimes fail. Our response to failure is measured: what matters is learning from failure, not avoiding failure altogether.
Achieving diversity in our hiring, our decisionmaking, and our culture, is a priority. We recognize that there is a correlation between funding and power. We question our power and privilege and work to cede it to communities we hope will thrive. We recognize and try to correct for our biases as an organization based in the United States. As we learn more, we will seek to improve in every dimension, including with respect to integrating best practices in diversity, racial equity, and inclusion into our operations and approach.
OUR GRANTMAKING
We fund opportunities that fall within our strategy focus areas and meet the following parameters: they are accountable to girls, focus on academic success, target pre-tertiary education in lower-income countries, and enable systemic change.
Please read our full strategy (with accompanying FAQ section) to learn more about the types of work Echidna Giving funds.
Given the size of our team and the targeted nature of our work, we rely on our network of advisors, fellow funders, trusted grantees, and experts in the field to source funding opportunities. For this reason, we do not have an open grantmaking process, nor are we able to accept unsolicited grant requests.
If you would like to share exceptional work on the ground, or opportunities, organizations or research that are a close match to our priorities, please drop us a line (but just note that our small team size prevents us from responding to emails outside of these guidelines).
Courtesy of Jonathan Torgovnik/Getty Images Reportage.
Courtesy of Paula Bronstein/The Verbatim Agency/Getty Images. Some rights reserved.
Courtesy of Paula Bronstein/The Verbatim Agency/Getty Images. Some rights reserved.
