Funders Aligned for Sustainability Transformations

The FAST Forum advances innovative and aligned funding while serving as a learning hub for transforming investments to accelerate sustainability solutions.

*If you have been active in FAST Forum we welcome highlighting your organization on our website. Please click the Thought Partner link to submit your information

COLLABORATIVE

Working together across sectors, geographies, and disciplines.

STRATEGIC

Aligning funding and knowledge to drive systemic change.

TRUSTED

Built on transparency, safety, and the Chatham House Rule.

SUSTAINABLE

Investing in solutions and infrastructure for a just and resilient future.

About FAST Forum

Building funding infrastructure together for shared impact.

The sustainability challenges confronting our world today – climate disruption, biodiversity loss, food insecurity, energy transition – are dynamic, interconnected and resistant to simple solutions. They are wicked problems.

While there have been solutions developed, we are increasingly realizing that no single funder or actor can solve these challenges alone. Progress demands collective impact, where funders align strategies, matrix resources and build the infrastructure for sustained collaboration.

From Isolated Impact to Strategic Funding Alignment

We are proposing a matrixed, strategic funding approach that moves beyond traditional funding collaboration models. Instead of concentrating resources into a single pot or targeting resources from different institutions on a single topic, this model creates a coordinated framework where funders align across multiple intersecting dimensions—geography, sector, discipline, knowledge-to-action pathways, and theories of change. The matrix structure allows funders to retain autonomy while intentionally connecting their contributions to generate leverage and systemic impact. By supporting movement and connectivity across the matrix, we create opportunities for research to inform decisions, for investments to accelerate sectoral transformation, and for collaborations to emerge that would not occur within one-dimensional funding structures.

The Value of Strategic Funding Alignment

Shared burden, amplified impact

Pooling resources to advance shared metrics reduces risk, increases feasibility, and scales promising solutions.

Diverse expertise

Each sector contributes critical perspectives, from research and innovation to implementation and policy.

Systemic change

Collective funding action provides resources for and contributes to learning about institutional capacity building and long-term systemic change and transformation.

Matrixed Collaboration

Builds on and extends other co-funding by aligning efforts across sectors, geographies, and theories of action, so that resources move fluidly between “lanes” to transform knowledge and resources into decision-making impact.

Examples from COVID-19 vaccine development to international climate alliances show what’s possible when funders act in concert. The FAST Forum seeks to build on these models by creating a global ecosystem of funders dedicated to collaboration, innovation, and equity; but also to learning how to evolve funding approaches for structural transformation.

Call to Action

We invite you to join the FAST Forum, a community of 80+ global funders, to pioneer new models of collaborative funding. Together, we can:

Align strategies across sectors to address sustainability priorities.
Co-design mechanisms that fill gaps in the research-to-impact ecosystem.
Invest in backbone organizations and infrastructure that sustain long-term, systemic change.
Support the co-learning, convening, and research infrastructure needed to advance sustainability-focused investments.

Thought Partner

*If you have been active in FAST Forum we welcome highlighting your organization on our website. Please click the Thought Partner button to submit your information

All FAST Forum discussions operate under the Chatham House Rules. Participants are free to use information received, but neither the identity nor the affillation of any speakers or participant may be revealed.