Customized programs

Since 2019, Spring has partnered with the Ford Foundation to support 145 of their Building Institutions and Networks (BUILD) initiative grantees worldwide to build lasting financial strength through the FIRE program. These organizations — primarily based in Global Majority countries and working at the frontlines of environmental and climate justice, gender and racial equity, civil rights, and the inclusion of historically excluded communities — have used FIRE to chart bold new paths toward financial resilience.

Each cohort starts with a research phase that includes a survey and a FIRE diagnostic to assess each organization’s financial health. The journey continues with a high-energy 3-day virtual or in-person intensive exploring four pillars of financial strength: funding landscapes, resource mobilization, strategic finance, and purposeful communications. From there, participants receive 6–8 months of hands-on accompaniment, including five thematic webinars and tailored office hours to refine and implement their FIRE action plans in real time.

To extend and deepen the learning, FIRE also runs two cohorts for BUILD FIRE graduates and is hosting 16 FIRE Global Innovation sessions designed for grantees to share and learn about emerging trends, real-world experiments and cutting-edge practices in building resilient financial futures.

Sessions have been offered in English, Spanish, Portuguese and Indonesian, with full translation of program materials. Participants also received access to a customized digital FIRE Learning Lab in multiple languages, enabling continuous learning and application.

For over four years Spring has worked with the Tenure Facility to provide crucial support to their partners. Through this alliance, so far 37 organizations and networks of Indigenous Peoples, Afrodescendant and local communities advancing land rights around the world have joined the FIRE program.

This highly customized FIRE program is centered on real-life financial needs —transactional and managerial finance, with a touch of strategic finance to support long-term resilience. The program includes a 5-day in-person training, tailored one-on-one coaching, and a final cohort convening to consolidate learning and chart next steps.

We deliver the program in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French, with materials translated into Nepali and Hindi. Each organization receives a practical finance manual and full access to our digital and multi-language FIRE Learning Lab.

Spring partnered with Open Society Foundations to support 227 of their grantee partners through a capacity development program called The Leadership Kitchen.

We designed six tailored, three-hour virtual meetups on leadership, management and governance themes, blending facilitated sessions with practice components on topics like decision-making, organizational growth, and conflict.

Sessions were offered in English with Spanish, French, and Portuguese interpretation, along with translated materials. Participants also received access to a customized digital Leadership Lab in their language of choice and the option to join small-group or individual coaching sessions.

Spring partnered with several public and private foundations as well as networks in strengthening the facilitation and collaboration skills of their staff and/or grantee partners.

These programs typically consisted of:

• A virtual launch call
• 3-day virtual or in-person intensive on topics such as perspective-taking, working with conflict and disagreement, building alignment, and embracing complexity
• 3 months of accompaniment that can include coaching and/or thematic webinars on topics like managing creative tensions and decision-making rules
• Online lab for self-directed learning