What risks do funders take?
Dr Andrew Cooper, our Chief Executive, on the first Eye Health Accelerator Grants
By Dr Andrew Cooper
Taking risks in funding programmes is crucial for fostering innovation. By supporting diverse initiatives with new ways of working, funders encourage unconventional solutions, leading to breakthroughs in addressing complex challenges. Embracing risk allows for adaptability and provides valuable learning opportunities, contributing to a more effective and resilient approach to sustainable change.
With the announcement of our first Eye Health Accelerator Grants, the Vision Catalyst Fund is setting out what type of funder we are. During the application and assessment process for the grants, we carefully analysed each programme against our published criteria. No programme is without risk, so our Board has to make difficult decisions about the potential impact of an initiative and the challenges that might be encountered through the work.
The grants we are making involve working in South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania and Peru. These countries are not unique in having complex ecosystems and local environments, which our partners will need to navigate carefully. Making real change happen is not easy, and each partner has built up significant in-country knowledge and relationships in order to increase access to eye health services.
The programmes we are supporting involve working closely with governments, complex collaborations between different organisations, policy change and service delivery, as well as trying to make permanent changes in eye health services so that the investments made are not a one-off project. There are multiple risks involved, and we will work closely with our partners to help make the programmes successful.
As a funder, we make finely balanced judgements about which programmes and partners to support through our grants. We can mitigate some of the risks through discussions with partners during the assessment process, but it is important to us that we back initiatives which push the boundaries and try new things. The opportunity cost of not taking risks in grant-making for development programs is substantial. Without embracing some risk, there is a heightened likelihood of maintaining the status quo or pursuing only proven, incremental approaches. We want to take calculated risks in order to find new ways to increase access to eye health services.
We know that there will be bumps in the road with every programme, but we are confident in the partners that we have chosen and look forward to working closely with them to make a big impact. We are committed to transparency and will publish results as well as challenges and lessons encountered along the way as we excitedly embark upon our first round of Eye Health Accelerator Grants.