Arabella Advisors
Arabella Advisors was founded in 2005 to provide strategic guidance for effective philanthropy. Since then, they’ve evolved into a mission-driven, Certified B Corporation that has helped hundreds of clients representing more than $100 billion in assets increase their philanthropic impact.
Arabella is a team of passionate problem solvers, located in four cities, dedicated to helping clients make a difference on the issues that matter most to them, from climate to women and girls, education, good food, and more. Their people are PhDs and MBAs, thinkers and builders, Peace Corps volunteers and congressional staffers—people who combine issue expertise, business acumen, policy wonkishness, and a passion for mission that can move mountains.
Their clients increasingly recognize that promising ideas with the power to effect deep social change often require up-front capital, rapid prototyping, and a higher tolerance for risk than governments or the market can provide. So they seek out actors and ideas that have the potential to change systems for the better, whether those systems are related to K-12 education, adolescent mental health, conservation, human rights, or something else. And they invest in programs—or, in some cases, help to incubate new initiatives or organizations—that are designed to lead to big, long-term improvements. Not every experiment works, but increased experimentation is moving us all toward scalable solutions that do.
At Arabella, they’re inspired by the remarkable growth in the social-impact sector over the last decade, and they think the sector is going to grow even further and faster in the next 10 years. They’re motivated daily by the roles they get to play in that growth.
DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION
Vision
Arabella strives to be a DEI leader in philanthropy. They seek and celebrate diversity and value their colleagues and clients for their unique backgrounds. Their culture of listening and radical empathy connects Arabellans and rewards challenging the status quo. They do this in service of each other, their clients, and all of their communities.
ISSUES & IDEAS
Arabella Advisors supports clients working on issues that span the social sector. In addition, they have internal teams, networks, and experts who focus on particular issues, including the following:
Good Food
Women and Girls
Conservation and Climate
Additional issue specialty are:
Early Childhood
Global Development
Equity and Social Justice
Education
Health
Civic Engagement
Community and Economic Development
Social and Emotioonal Wellbeing
AREAS OF EXPERTISE
Arabella provides a complete platform of services to support those who are serious about social impact. Their areas of expertise include:
Advocacy
Arabella Advisors partners with leading donors to develop, implement, and evaluate programs and campaigns that produce social and policy change domestically and abroad.
Collaboration and Network Building
Through more than 150 domestic and international projects, Arabella staff have mastered the art of guiding effective collaborative efforts across the philanthropic sector and beyond.
Convening and Facilitation
Bringing together peers, grantees, board members, and family members can be a powerful way to solve problems, share knowledge, and make decisions. Arabella crafts convening and meeting content that is centered on your goals and provides facilitation that ensures all voices are heard, resulting in actionable, impactful outcomes.
Fiscal Sponsorship
Arabella Advisors manages a suite of independent nonprofit organizations that provide fiscal sponsorship and project incubation to a wide range of charitable initiatives. They partner with donors and social entrepreneurs to develop, launch, and manage initiatives that enable them to focus on their charitable mission while their team of nonprofit management experts executes the entire legal, financial, and operational framework.
Governance and Compliance
Arabella’s staff work with donors and projects to design, implement, and evaluate governance models to set organizations, boards, and projects up for success. No matter what your initiative’s size, culture, and legal structure, they help right-size all the components of governance to suit the practical reality of your work, setting you up to achieve goals.
Grants Management
The Arabella Advisors team manages more than $75 million in grants each year, helping to drive positive outcomes across the philanthropic landscape. They can help you develop strategic grant-making programs, manage grants more efficiently, and put more funds to work for impact, both domestically and abroad.
Impact Investing
Their investment team works with institutional and family foundations, individuals, and wealth advisors to design, implement, and evaluate impact investing strategies that further their social or environmental goals.
Program and Organization Management
Arabella’s dedicated team of professionals can act as your program, operational, and even financial staff, enabling you to focus on philanthropy's more meaningful aspects while providing you access to experts who understand what it takes to deliver impact.
Strategy, Evaluation, and Learning
Based on more than a decade of experience designing, implementing, and evaluating efforts to drive social and environmental impact, Arabella Advisors can help you understand the landscape, find the right path forward, and achieve your philanthropic goals.
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