This guide is designed for funders who seek to strengthen how they support the organisational development (OD) of their grantee partners through equity lenses. It offers practical guidance to help funders design and implement approaches to OD that are coherent, values-aligned, and grounded in partner agency, trust and long-term resilience.
What is organisational development?
Organisational development is the ongoing work of strengthening an organisation so it can deliver its mission effectively, adapt to change, and sustain its impact over time.
In practice, OD looks at how an organisation works as a whole – its leadership, culture, strategy, structures, and ways of learning – and supports teams to reflect, adapt and grow together.
A note on terminology: The terms organisational development, capacity strengthening, and capacity building are often used interchangeably in the sector to describe efforts to strengthen organisations, and there is no universally agreed set of definitions. In this publication, however, we distinguish between these concepts. We use capacity strengthening to refer to more targeted support aimed at developing specific skills, or technical capabilities. By contrast, organisational development (OD) refers to a broader, more holistic process of strengthening an organisation’s overall effectiveness, resilience, and ability to achieve its mission by addressing interconnected dimensions such as strategy, leadership, governance, culture, systems, and ways of working. While OD can be understood as a form of capacity strengthening, not all capacity strengthening or non-financial support constitutes OD. Some interventions are focused on specific organisational functions or capabilities and are therefore better understood as capacity strengthening rather than OD.
Evolution of the field
This guide builds on the report "Funding Organisational Development: A Smart Investment to Multiply Impact", published in 2020 by the Laudes Foundation, MAVA Foundation, Mercator Foundation Switzerland, Oak Foundation and PeaceNexus Foundation. Its purpose was to encourage funders to invest more deliberately in OD as a way to strengthen partner organisations and sustain impact during the uncertainty of the Covid‑19 pandemic.
The 2020 report already reflected shifts in how funders were approaching OD. These included moving away from one-off or ad hoc capacity‑building grants towards more holistic, strategy‑anchored support; embedding OD within core funding; and increasing peer learning among philanthropic institutions around how to fund and accompany OD work.
Six years on, both the context and practice of OD have continued to evolve in this direction, with an increasingly relational approach. At the same time, organisations face growing pressure – from funding instability and shrinking civic space to rising complexity and demand – all of which make resilient, adaptive organisational capacity more critical than ever.
What this guide offers
Against this backdrop, this publication responds to a new set of questions:
- How can funders develop a clear and intentional approach to supporting organisational development?
- How can this support respect partner agency and context, rather than impose external agendas?
- How can OD funding practices reflect the equity, power awareness, and relational values that underpin OD itself?
Drawing on interviews with experienced OD practitioners, this guide provides practical insights for funders at different stages of engagement with OD, whether they are developing a new programme or revisiting their OD practices to apply further equity and power-sharing lenses.
How to find your path in the publication
The different chapters of the guide can be explored in a flexible order: Three chapters help funders understand the background and current operating context, while the others focus on the practical implementation of OD support.