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Approximately 10 million nonprofits operate around the world and focus on a variety of different issues. As the nonprofit sector continues to grow, there is a struggle with improving outcomes and showing impact. Two of the areas we need to address in the nonprofit sector relating to impact are 1) how to improve collaboration and 2) how to increase transparency.

There are two main reasons why nonprofits struggle with collaboration and transparency. First, there is a lack of trust and a feeling of competition between nonprofits. Second, nonprofits feel like they have limited time and resources, which hinders them from putting effort into working with other nonprofits or showing more transparency. In a 2020 study, many U.S. based nonprofits weren’t aware of other nonprofits in their community working on the same issue(s). And those who do know each other are hesitant to work together due to having different approaches, potential loss of autonomy and fear of losing their funding sources to another nonprofit. Foundations contribute to this sense of competition when they only fund one or two organizations working in the same space, causing a competitive atmosphere. Nonprofits also feel like they don't have time or resources to work together. For example, nonprofits spend a lot of time applying for funding. They repeatedly answer the same questions about their mission, vision, projects and more, causing additional usage of time and resources as they continually outreach for grants and donations.

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