Members-Only

March 12, 9:00 am ET / 14:00 CET / 8:00 pm Jakarta

This members-only ARCS Roundtable will explore how strategic collaboration among civil society organizations can strengthen their collective impact and sustainability. It will focus on cooperative arrangements that go beyond traditional partnerships—including shared office spaces, pooled administrative costs, joint fundraising initiatives, and collaborative service delivery models. We will discuss both the practical mechanics of resource-sharing and the deeper cultural shifts required to move from competitive to collaborative mindsets. Participants will explore how consortia arrangements can help smaller organizations achieve economies of scale, reduce overhead burdens, and amplify their programmatic reach while maintaining their distinct missions and identities.

Moderated by Clara Bosco, ARCS Roundtable Member.

Public Event

April 2026 (date/time TBD)

This members-only ARCS Roundtable will discuss how can human rights and social justice NGOs team up with creatives and artists to identify more supporters and broaden their resource base? It will feature Artist Tomas Saraceno, who has been called "The artist ‘most likely to change the world’" (The Guardian) and will share his experience working with El Santuario del Agua (The Sanctuary of Water) in Argentina.

Moderated by ARCS Roundtable member Gaston Chillier.

Members-only

May 2026 (date/time TBD)

This ARCS Roundtable will explore how civil society organizations can navigate the shift toward marketized revenue streams by demystifying the business planning process. As NGOs increasingly look beyond grants for flexible, sustainable income, the ability to develop a coherent business plan becomes essential—yet few nonprofit staff have been trained to write one. We will examine the common mental blocks and conceptual barriers that arise when mission-driven professionals engage with the language of markets and commerce, and work through the practical frameworks that make business planning accessible—including how to conduct a market analysis to identify viable opportunities and prospective clients, and how to develop realistic income projections grounded in evidence rather than aspiration. Participants will discuss how to translate familiar nonprofit concepts—theory of change, stakeholder mapping, resource mobilization—into the components of a business plan, and what it looks like to adapt private-sector tools for civil society contexts.

Public event

May 2026 (date/time TBD)

This event will explore constituency-based giving models and alternative resourcing strategies emerging from social movements across Africa. Drawing on deep-rooted local traditions of collective giving—such as rotating savings groups, community tithing practices, and movement-led fundraising—the session will examine how these models are being adapted and formalized to sustain civil society organizations beyond donor dependency. We will discuss what makes these approaches culturally resonant and financially viable, and consider what lessons they may hold for organizations operating in other contexts seeking to diversify their resource base and strengthen community ownership of their work.

Members-Only

June 2026 (date/time TBD)

This ARCS Roundtable will explore what advocacy NGOs can learn from the dramatic transformation of independent media over the past decade. The journalism industry faced a crisis of resourcing as a result of digitalization of media and outmoded past business models. Although some companies went out of business, others were able to adapt to changing structures. Faced with collapsing advertising revenues and the disruption of traditional distribution models, journalism organizations were forced to fundamentally reimagine how they resource their work—pioneering subscription models, membership communities, philanthropic-editorial hybrids, and reader-funded investigative units. We will examine how this paradigm shift in media offers a compelling analogue for civil society organizations grappling with their own funding pressures: over-reliance on grant cycles, donor concentration risk, and the limitations of project-based financing. The conversation will also surface the tensions and trade-offs involved, including how to preserve organizational independence and mission integrity while building innovative resourcing models.