Reimagining Capacity Building for Community-Based Organizations

Community-based organizations bring deep community trust, long-standing relationships, and on-the-ground expertise that are irreplaceable. Yet funding too often goes towards what organizations deliver rather than what allows them to keep delivering it well.
This session shares honest lessons from a collaboration between Catalyst Exchange, Blue Meridian’s Place Matters portfolio, and the UP Partnership, where organizations defined their own capacity needs and accessed flexible, expert support on their own terms. Panelists share what the model made possible, what it revealed about how the sector can better resource community-led work, and what it takes to move capital in ways that genuinely strengthen the places it serves.