Swallows Taught Me Everything I Needed To Know About Donor Collaboratives
Meeting Siliva Bastante De Unverhau 7 years later
I was asked to speak about how I came to support donor collaboratives at the Skoll World Forum yesterday and many have asked me to share my reflections as it was a closed session. It was useful to tell a bit of my backstory to weave it all together.
Early in my career as an emergency medicine Physicians’ Assistant, I felt a profound sense of purpose. I saw myself as a troubleshooter, identifying what was broken and striving to fix it. One recurring patient—a young boy with severe asthma who lived in a car with his family—exposed me to the harsh realities of poverty in my hometown of Boston This experience illuminated the broader issue of social determinants of health, revealing how systemic challenges perpetuate illness, with the ER serving as a last resort.
Driven by a desire to comprehend these systemic flaws, I pursued further education and subsequently worked to fortify health delivery systems in Africa and Haiti. However, despite these efforts, the focus remained primarily on treating diseases, with scant resources allocated to health system strengthening (HSS) in the late 90s.
Over the next three decades, I witnessed transformative developments in global health, from initiatives like PEPFAR to the shift towards Universal Health Care and the remarkable expansion of Community Health Worker networks. Yet, it wasn't until later in life that I found myself unexpectedly embarking on entrepreneurship, propelled by a conviction that most household illnesses could be addressed affordably and effectively through basic healthcare education and access to low-cost medicines.
This conviction led me to co-found Care 2 Communities (C2C), a comprehensive primary care clinic network in Haiti staffed entirely by Haitians in partnership with the Ministry of Health. Despite the immense challenges in fundraising and navigating a broken system, C2C has flourished, serving as a beacon of hope in northern Haiti.
However, after a decade of relentless dedication, I found myself burnt out and disillusioned by the cutthroat nature of fundraising. During this bleak period, I encountered Olivia Leland and Silvia Bastante de Unverhau at Skoll, where Co-Impact was taking shape. Recognizing the limitations of individual efforts and the complex issues facing vulnerable populations, I decided to join Co-Impact, witnessing firsthand its transformative impact in building just and inclusive systems to support health education and livelihood opportunities across 17 countries, with 57 partners, reaching 600 million people in about 5 years.
The success of Co-Impact underscored the potential of collaborative funding models, yet it remains an underutilized approach. Of the $1 Trillion in grants made last year only .2% went to collaboratives. We---donors, doers, DAF holders, and foundations need to do better.
So when I learned of the +I Health Fund launched by the Roddenberry Foundation I was curious again. My involvement in this collaborative endeavor complements rather than competes with C2C and Co-Impact, embodying a belief in the power of collective action to drive meaningful change.
Reflecting on my journey, I draw inspiration from the harmonious collaboration observed in nature—how plants breathe out the oxygen we need and we breathe out the CO2 that they need. Similarly, I envision a future where philanthropic efforts align harmoniously, guided not by competition but by a shared commitment to collective well-being.
By embracing innovative, collaborative models, we can navigate the complexities of our world with grace and coherence, much like the murmuration of starlings or the interconnectedness of fungal networks. By prioritizing cooperation over competition and embracing a collective vision for a better future, we can pave the way for lasting and impactful change.
