{"id":1480,"date":"2013-06-03T14:12:27","date_gmt":"2013-06-03T19:12:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/articles\/\/"},"modified":"2016-01-21T14:15:22","modified_gmt":"2016-01-21T19:15:22","slug":"supporting-think-tanks-series-from-core-and-institutional-support-to-organizational-development-grants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/articles\/supporting-think-tanks-series-from-core-and-institutional-support-to-organizational-development-grants\/","title":{"rendered":"Supporting think tanks series: From core and institutional support to organizational development grants"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Editor’s note: this post has been written by Goran Buldioski and is\u00a0part of the series of posts\u00a0<\/a>developed for the Indonesian Knowledge Sector Initiative.\u00a0The author is director of the\u00a0Open Society Foundations\u2019 Think Tank Fund<\/a>. The opinions presented in this article are solely of the author and by no means represent an official standpoint on behalf of the Think Tank Fund. The views expressed in these publications are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the Commonwealth of Australia. The Commonwealth of Australia accepts no responsibility for any Loss, damage or injury resulting from reliance on any of the information or views contained in this publication]<\/em><\/p>\n

For a long time, core and institutional support has been considered as the holy grail of grant making by grantees and donors alike. These days, donors that provide this type of support to think tanks are far and apart. In this think piece I present, briefly, the main components of core and institutional support to think tanks focusing on the elements that can make this type of support an effective capacity building tool. Then the piece examines different ways to provide more targeted support and thus help think tanks build their capacity faster and better.<\/p>\n

Core and Institutional support \u2013what is it (usually)?<\/h2>\n

Most core and institutional grants I have seen can be broken down into three \u2018constituent\u2019 components:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Sustainability component,<\/li>\n
  2. Development component, and<\/li>\n
  3. Seed funding – incubator of new ideas.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The first component, sustainability, refers to funds that partially underwrite the grantees\u2019 payroll, administrative, technical and other core expenses. In other words this is general budget support that helps the think tanks to operate.<\/p>\n

    The development component refers to the funds spent\u00a0on developing the capacity\u00a0<\/a>of employees and improvements in the centres\u2019 research infrastructure\/methodological enhancement. In addition to issue-related competences, diligent donors will also include support for building\/improving think tanks\u2019\u00a0communication capacity<\/a>,\u00a0management practices<\/a>, and\u00a0governance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    The third component, seed funding, refers to the portion of the grant that is directly spent on policy research. Sometimes this serves as match-funding to projects where other donors require think tanks to make their own contribution. Most of the time, however, it is used for drafting analytical products or carrying out activities that others are not ready to support, but that the organization feels very strongly about. These are usually ideas that are yet not attractive to other donors or that the grantee prefers to pilot carefully or design further before scaling it up and applying to project-based donors.<\/p>\n

    Clearly delineating these three components within a single organization is impossible. For example, a donor may provide 50% of a senior researcher\u2019s salary. Half of this amount could compensate the researcher\u2019s time spent on incubating an idea while the other half could be a sustainability contribution to keep that person full-time (and usually will not be properly accounted for).<\/p>\n

    Or consider a portion of director\u2019s salary that think tanks routinely charge against the core and institutional support grant. In a hypothetical example one could assume that a core grant covers 20% of her\/his time dedicated to management (sustainability component) and 10-20% for developing new ideas (seed\/incubator component). Therefore, this distinction is more important as a tracking devise only. It helps both sides to identify and trace the purpose and usage of the support awarded.<\/p>\n

    Core and Institutional support -What determines their success?
    \n<\/a><\/b><\/b><\/h2>\n

    There are a number of general organization-related factors that determine if core support will be successful. These include:<\/p>\n