What We Do
Our Work
ERFIP operates through two connected engines—one that generates knowledge, one that turns it into action.
01 — Think
The Think Tank
Knowledge Hub
Focus: insight generation, strategy, and systems understanding.
Insight-to-Action Capture
Translate learnings into usable frameworks that serve the broader ERFIP community — distilling case studies, convenings, and field research into practical playbooks that partners can act on immediately, rather than reports that sit on a shelf.
Data-Based Validation
Validate learnings through data-based research, testing assumptions against real outcomes in the field so that strategy is grounded in evidence rather than intuition or precedent alone.
Actionable Knowledge for Community Implementation
Disseminate learnings to the ERFIP community through local and global summits, creating a shared body of knowledge that every member family can draw on when shaping their own giving.
02 — Do
The Do Tank
Convergence Circle
Focus: action, validation, and community-level implementation.
Mapping Opportunity Corridors
Identify where needs and resources intersect to spark transformative partnerships — surfacing the specific regions, sectors, and moments where a modest, well-placed intervention can unlock outsized impact.
Evidence-Based Intelligence
Gather ground-level data and strategic insights to inform high-impact decisions, working directly with local partners who understand the on-the-ground realities that no dashboard can fully capture.
Bridging Strengths
Align actors across sectors to co-design solutions and build supportive ecosystems — bringing philanthropists, businesses, and local institutions to the same table so that no single actor has to carry a solution alone.
Insight becomes action
Together, the Think Tank and Do Tank form a single feedback loop—research that leads to partnership, and partnership that generates new research.
Current Focus
ERFIP’s current focus is climate: we’re building a coalition of philanthropists, investors, and local institutions around climate solutions, piloting the model in an African country before scaling it to other emerging markets.
One model we’re testing pairs local investors with global capital to back local innovation—local partners bring the trust, context, and on-the-ground judgment; global funders bring scale. Together they can move faster and more accountably than either could alone.