Breaking Down Grant Making Silos: Disability as a Cross-Programme Initiative

Increasingly, foundations talk about ways of breaking down silos in their grant making approaches in order to step away from the single-issue focus to improve effectiveness and to achieve long lasting solutions to deep rooted problems. In this framework, the effort of many foundations that are taking action to breaking down those silos by developing joint grants across different priority areas is remarkable. This publication's main aim is to communicate these greatest efforts to provide a source of reflection and inspiration for foundations. Since we are working in a systemic framework, it would be ineffective to address disability without acknowledging its relationships with gender equality, education, employment, ageing, research, cooperation and development.This booklet aims also to demonstrate through a solution-based approach, the broadness of foundational programs in the field of disability that also have a clear focus on social innovation. The best practices showcased show how foundations consider disability a cross-cutting and inclusive issue, integrating it into programs that reach out not only persons with disabilities but connect them with very different fields of civil society. This practical tool can serve as an inspiration for other foundations to act taking into consideration the cross-cutting approach.