In Search of Systemic Impact: The Cooperative Assistance Fund and Program-Related Investments

Abstract Scholars investigate philanthropy’s ability to effect change but pay less attention to strategies changing practices within the philanthropic sector. The Cooperative Assistance Fund (CAF) pioneered program-related investments (PRIs) as a philanthropic strategy that merged commercial and philanthropic logics, thus moving beyond traditional grantmaking practices. Adopting an institutional work perspective, the study describes the types of institutional work that promote a new philanthropic model. Historical evidence shows that CAF’s leadership reframed philanthropic approaches (framing work) and developed strategies influencing policy (political work), promoting PRIs (cultural work), and supporting interested foundations (technical work), but failed to develop a clear identity around these strategies (internal practice work). Taking advantage of historical methods, the study historically embeds the diverse types of institutional work that were employed, showing how these practices were often more reactive than proactive. The study contributes to our understanding of PRIs in linking their limited use to tensions between different institutional logics, while paradoxically contributing to the establishment of market-based approaches.