Owen Jarvis, UK Cohousing Network, 10.10.25
Importance of weaving
In any sector — from housing to health to social enterprise — there’s a seemingly invisible layer that keeps everything connected. Infrastructure and membership organisations are not always on the front line, but they are the weavers: sharing knowledge, spotting opportunities, connecting people, and strengthening the whole ecosystem.
Surviving on the frontline
Imagine you run a small community or social enterprise. You come across a valuable piece of information, a funding lead, or even meet a minister. Do you share that advantage across the sector — or use it to strengthen your own organisation? Most of us, understandably, lean towards the latter. Front line organisations need to survive.
Funders’ dilemma
Infrastructure organisations operate differently. Their job is to look after the ecosystem as a whole — ensuring that opportunities, learning, and good practice don’t sit in silos, but circulate. They help avoid duplication, build collective capacity, and amplify impact.
For funders, this presents a familiar dilemma:
- Do you fund front line organisations, where impact is visible and immediate?
- Or do you fund ecosystem stewards, where impact is shared, slower to measure, but ultimately systemic?
A sweetspot – funding for ecosystems
Of course, the real answer lies in the sweet spot between the two: funding programmes that enable infrastructure organisations to work hand in hand with front line initiatives to amplify their impact and create collective impact. That’s how we build strong, resilient sectors — not just strong individual organisations.