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.
COLLABORATIVE
Working together across sector, geographies, and discipline.
STRATEGIC
Aligning Tuning and knowledge to drive systemic change.
TRUSTED
Built on transparency. psychological sufety, and the Chathom 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
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 60+ 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, potentially through a small, shared “portfolio” tax that enables collective field-building.
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.
Upcoming events
17 July, 2026
Sidelines of UNESCO IDSSD Conference
- 9:00 - 19:00
- CNRS, Paris, France
19 May, 2026
Virtual Workshop
- 9:00 am - 10:00 am
- Virtual
18 March, 2026
Virtual Workshop
- 9:00 am - 10:00 am
- Virtual
19 November, 2025
Virtual Workshop
- 9:00 am - 10:00 am
- Virtual
If you would like to learn more and be invited to future workshops, please email us to: FAST_Forum@alignedforsustainability.org