Are we ready to innovate? There is a lot of interest from most organisations in introducing innovations to their funding models. These can range from income-generating activities (as we mentioned in the last post) to changes in fundraising tasks and responsibilities, to hiring a new fundraising officer or director. However, it is precisely the way they do things currently that makes these changes difficult to achieve. Innovations often take time as well as some kind of expert

As we close a new edition of the online course “Re-thinking your funding model”, we thought it would be interested to do a brief summary of what are arguably the main concerns for think tankers regarding their funding situation. Those following our series on funding as well as other resources will be familiar with some of them by now. Even if the challenges are already known, collective efforts to think about potential solutions remain the best way to face these challenges, w

[Editor’s note: This post is part of a series that looks into think tank funding models. It is based on a course that Politics & Ideas has delivered to a group of think tanks in Central Eastern Europe and Nepal] When think tank managers and members are worried about their funding models, it is frequently related to periods in which incoming funds are not that certain or are less than expected…concerns about being more proactive and creative increase. This sometimes leads to f

[Editor’s Note: This post was written by Ruth Levine, Program Director, Global Development and Population Program, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and it was originally published at Research to Action. ] There are many ways to think about ethical practices in think tanks, but whether the thoughts turn into actions depends on whether the organization has the leadership, appropriate staffing and systems, and financial resources to adhere to the highest standards of transp

[Editor’s note: This post was written by Elena Polo, Research Analyst at AGENDA Institute, Albania. It  is part of a series of reflections from participants and facilitators of the Online course Re-thinking your Funding Model that took place in 2014, supported by the Think Tank Fund.] Being part of Civil Society Organizations is practically an engagement as interesting as defiant in the same time. It is a sector of a continuous development in a parallel way with the general d

[Editor’s note: This post is part of a series that looks into think tank funding models. It is based on a course that Politics & Ideas has delivered to a group of think tanks in Central Eastern Europe and Nepal] Even organisations with a strong and well-functioning fundraising unit need further involvement to succeed in raising funds. This post considers some additional pieces of the puzzle separately: senior managers, members of governance bodies (e.g. trustees, board member

[Editor’s note: This post is part of a series that will look at think tank funding models. It is based on an online course that had been delivered to think tanks in CEE and Nepal under the Think Tank Fund´s support, led by Vanesa Weyrauch and Tomás Garzón de la Roza] A funding model is not only related to how needed funds are secured but also to how the organisation decides to spend them. In fact, the way money is used in a think tank (or any organisation) is not ‘the end of

[Editor’s note: This post is part of a series that will look at think tank funding models. It is based on a course that is currently under development.] At Politics & Ideas, we are currently working to understand how different think tanks have sorted out the funding question. This is an important issue for reasons that we already know. Firstly, because like most nonprofits think tanks have to compete simultaneously in two markets: to inform policymaking and to receive funds f

Development experiences from many Arab countries show that the achievement of development in different sectors depends on the practical level of knowledge and skills of the labor force available to those countries.  That’s why it is crucial to encourage southern research that can help the developing countries cope with the developed world, since it is the cornerstone in development where work force is trained to lead the social, economic, political and cultural changes. South

[Editor’s note: This post was written by Hans Gutbrod, coordinator of Transparify, which advocates for greater think tank transparency.] In recent months, Transparify has been advocating for think tanks to become more transparent about who funds them. We rated 169 think tanks from across the world, and found that less than a quarter of them are highly transparent. Of the reviewed think tanks in Latin and Central America, only Grupo Faro in Ecuador and IPEA in Brazil were full

At Politics & Ideas, we are working to put together an online course focused on understanding funding models that think tanks employ around the world, and their implications. Our assumption is that different funding schemes (e.g. through contracts, core funds and/or project funds) can have fundamental implications on the way policy research is done, as well as in communications and management of think tanks – just to mention some of their core functions. Although this issue o

[Editor’s note: This post has been written by Adriana Arellano, from Grupo FARO, who are participating of a mentoring project with ASIES in Guatemala. This series is an effort to share lessons learned by these organisations with other think tanks and is published jointly with On Think Tanks.] A think tank’s governance is a delicate matter. The balance between individual researchers’ interests and those of the organisation is hard to strike, especially when the think tank depe

Funding is one of the pillars of our research agenda, because it is a hassle both for the recipients as for the givers since matching the interests of both is not always an easy task. There is a growing interest in organizations that develop research and ideas for policy, mostly in the development community but also in local philanthropic communities, hence the question: how should they be funded? After having first-hand experience working with researchers at a national think

This reflection is part of the 20 lessons included in the paper Lessons learned on promoting better links between research and policy in Latin America Throughout the six years of work within our programme Spaces for Engagement, we used to define very specific objectives for each capacity building activity. Though the latter were implicitly linked to the general goals of the programme we did not apply an overall framework or theory of change to capacity building. Instead, we a

Evidence based policy has, as the Topic Guide states in its introduction, become a sort of holy grail for policymakers (in the North and the South). If the concept is difficult to fully accept in developed countries with strong professional civil services, the idea would seem, for anyone with any experience working in a developing country, quite simply impossible to put into practice without a suspension of disbelief of significant proportions. Some attempts have been made to

Our first product is a Topic Guide on Politics and Ideas. We have worked intensely to produce it but we know that we need your help to complete our task. We want this Guide to become an opportunity for collaboration that helps to improve what we have produced so far and the questions that still need to be answered. Why a Topic Guide? We believe that there is a difference between being better informed and having access to lists of documents. If we want to be better informed ab

In the academic world, little attention has been paid to how the priorities and agendas of global research organisations, along with their funding mechanisms, affect research projects in developing countries where there is a lack of state interest in research. Globalized Research and ‘‘National Science’’: The Case of Peru, by Carlos F. Caceres and  Walter Mendoza, is an article published in the Academic Journal of Public Health in 2009 that tries to remedy this void. Using Pe