Meeting an Urgent Moment: How Funders Are Using Pooled Funds and Collaborative Grantmaking to Move Faster, Together

Across the country, communities are facing accelerating crises: housing instability, immigration pressures, threats to human rights and safety, and increasing precarity for families. Solutions to these pressing issues can’t wait. And yet, philanthropy too often finds itself stuck in pause mode: reflection periods, planning cycles, and slow-moving processes that struggle to meet the pace of reality.

So a critical question keeps surfacing:

What approaches are actually working right now?

Every day at JustFund, we’re seeing the answer: pooled funds and collaborative grantmaking are becoming some of the most powerful tools for collective action.

They allow funders to move faster, move together, and move with integrity.

A Proven Solution

Philanthropy has enormous resources, but we’re often constrained by our own systems: lengthy applications, duplicative due diligence, and infrastructure that wasn’t built for speed.

At JustFund, funders and community partners tell us how they want to act quickly, but don’t how to stand something up fast and fear getting it wrong. That tension, between urgency and caution, is one of the reasons why JustFund was created.

Since launching in 2018, we’ve been focused on breaking the dam that slows the flow of resources to communities that have been historically excluded from traditional philanthropy. Today, our community of more than 250 funders, including collaborative funds, national foundations, family foundations, donor advisors, individuals, and donor networks, has collectively moved over $400 million, with our sights set on $1 billion.

But reaching that scale requires more than good intentions. It requires nimble infrastructure and approaches that allow people to act together. 

What Is a Pooled Fund?

“Pooled fund” and “collaborative fund” are often used interchangeably, but they are not the same.

A pooled fund is when multiple funders contribute money into a single pot that is managed and distributed by a central entity, such as a foundation, intermediary, or fiscal sponsor.

Key features of a pooled fund:

• Single decision-making structure: A lead organization or shared governance body decides how funds are allocated.

• Unified strategy: All contributors align around shared goals, criteria, and processes.

• Efficiency: Administration, due diligence, and grantmaking are streamlined through one system.

• Speed: Funds can move quickly, often in days, not months.

Example:
Several foundations each contribute $1 million into a shared fund managed by JustFund, which then, using an advisory committee, recommends grants to nonprofits responding to an urgent community need.

In short: Everyone puts money into one pot → JustFund manages and disburses it.

Pooled funds are especially powerful for rapid response, trust-based philanthropy, and moments when coordination and speed matter most.

What Is a Collaborative Fund?

A collaborative fund is a broader concept. It refers to funders working together toward a shared goal, but without necessarily combining their money into a single pool.

Key features of collaborative funds:

• Coordination without merging funds: Each funder retains control of their own dollars.

• Flexible structure: Collaboration can include shared learning, joint strategy, coordinated timelines, or aligned grant criteria.

• Varied governance: Decision-making can be fully joint or loosely coordinated, depending on the group’s needs.

Example: A group of funders agrees to support climate resilience projects across regions. Each funder makes grants from their own budget, but they share grantee research, evaluation tools, and learning.

In short: Everyone works together strategically → but keeps their own funds and decision-making.

Collaborative funds often serve as a gateway to deeper alignment and sometimes evolve into pooled funds over time.

Why These Models Are Gaining Popularity

Across the country, we’re seeing donors and community leaders reimagine how giving happens. Pooled and collaborative funds are gaining traction because they directly address philanthropy’s biggest challenges:

• They turn individual efforts into collective power

• They allow donors to act together instead of alone

• They bypass long grant cycles to respond to urgent needs

• They align with trust-based philanthropy, distributing power and centering community expertise

• They attract new and values-aligned donors who want to plug into something bigger than themselves

Every meaningful pooled fund begins with someone who decides not to wait for slow-moving systems. Someone who chooses speed, collaboration, and community trust over red tape. Someone who creates a clear, credible way for others to join in. And, JustFund is there to provide the infrastructure.

Because the future of philanthropy isn’t about acting alone. It’s about moving faster and more intentionally, together.

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Pooled Fund vs. Collaborative Fund Comparison