What is Financial Innovation & Resilience?

Civil society organizations need financial strength to thrive. How can you build greater financial resilience and health?

SPRING's Financial Innovation and Resilience (FIRE) program is internationally renowned and teaches the fundamentals of financial resilience. It includes the latest approaches in innovative financing models, transformative partnerships with funders, changing funding and investment landscape, resource development and diversification, strategic finance, external communications and leadership practice. The program is offered in both virtual and in-person formats with little or high-touch accompaniment.  

Watch this introductory video to learn more:

 

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Our FIRE Programs

Impact Stories

Your Organization as a Bicycle

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Through active engagement in the FIRE program, you will be able to:

  • Put new tools to work and build a customized action plan
  • Anticipate and respond to changes in the funding and financing landscape
  • Evaluate and pursue opportunities for diversification
  • Use new prospecting techniques and knowledge for shaping relationships with various types of donors and funders
  • Develop a budgeting strategy that projects and captures income, costs and recovery of true costs
  • Monitor progress with a user-friendly dashboard of key financial health indicators
  • Create messaging for complex work, shape powerful engagement and action, and build support through any communication channel
  • Access an international community of Financial Resilience graduates working for social and climate justice

Explore our various program options below and get in touch to explore how we can design a package that works for you and your organization and beyond. 

Our FIRE Programs

Intro to FIRE

A 1-day virtual intensive, you will interactively explore and understand key components of building financial strength with: 

  • Up to 100 other participants
  • Opportunities for cross-learning and exchanges
  • Exploration of concepts and tools and highest-leverage opportunities for building financial strength via interactive facilitation.

Learn more and register

FIRE 1.0 - Fundamentals

Covering fundamentals concepts and tools of financial innovation and resilience, this 4 month long program takes the form of a 3-day virtual or in-person Intensive with:

  • Up to 36 other participants
  • Opportunities for individual organizational, and cross-learning
  • Cohort level online accompaniment in the form of thematic webinars and cross-learning sessions
  • Access to all foundational resources of the program on the FIRE Learning Lab

Learn more and register

FIRE 2.0 

A 8 month long program with a cohort of up to 15 social and climate justice organizations or networks. The program includes:

  • One virtual or in-person intensive
  • The development of a FIRE diagnostic tool per participating organization to assess financial health with key indicators and guide priorities and plans
  • Cohort level online accompaniment in the form of thematic webinars and small group cross-learning sessions
  • Customized Learning Lab space for the Cohort

FIRE 3.0

A 12 month long program with a cohort of up to 15 social and climate organizations including:

  • The formation of a custom program delivery team
  • Two virtual or in-person intensive workshops
  • The development of a FIRE diagnostic tool per participating organization to assess financial health with key indicators and guide priorities and plans
  • A scan of the Funding and Financing Landscape specific to the context of the cohort
  • High-touch online or in-person one-on-one accompaniment including group webinars
  • Customized Learning Lab space for the Cohort

Get in touch to learn more!

Impact Stories
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My Financial Innovation & Resilience Journey: Htar Htar, Akhaya Women

Htar Htar is the founder of Akhaya Women in Myamar. Akhaya Women is at the forefront of women and gender work in Myanmar. Their work started as the formation of small mothers’ and women’s groups to learn about child development and sexuality and has evolved to include education programs about harassment and reproductive health.

Htar Htar attended Spring’s Financial Resilience Intensive in Bangkok, October 2018

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My Financial Innovation & Resilience Journey: Donna McSkimming

We interviewed Donna McSkimming in December 2018 when she was the Program Director at the International Women’s Development Agency. IWDA works to advance and protect the rights of women and girls, with the vision that one day gender equality will be achieved for all.

She attended Spring’s Financial Resilience Intensive in Bangkok, October 2018.

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Stella Lutalo and PELUM Uganda come back to Spring

Building on Financial Resilience towards a more powerful future

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Your Organization as a Bicycle
Watch

Your Organization as a Bicycle

Check out our introductory animation on FIRE: Financial Innovation and Resilience.

Bicycles are vehicles that we use to get to our desired destinations. They come in many shapes and sizes, with specialized designs suited to different purposes. Some are more efficient than others; some are bigger and others are very high-tech. They run better with continual maintenance, and require new parts and upgrades from time to time,….

… just like organizations and networks.

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“It teaches you about more than finance – communication, humanity, leadership.”

“This course will completely change your views and feelings on money and relationships with donors.”

“This helped me to change my attitude and face fundraising.”

“Channel the power of financial resilience to drive purpose and create impact.”

“This will help us realize our mission of using social business models to change our country!”

“After this training, we dared to move forward with the initial steps of an individual donor initiative, in which we are now investing to implement permanently.”

“This helps us take the next step to diversifying income by building an authentic and powerful purpose.”

“Now our grantees see the connection between a good pitch and a good outcome - it means clarifying their vision and mission, articulating it, and laying out what they seek to do.”

“I learned that it’s OK to say no when the offer doesn’t meet with your organization’s goals.”

“Before anything related to money had a negative connotation. Now we have franker and more natural conversations about money.”