Accountability Lab recently celebrated its twelfth birthday with friends and allies at a rooftop soiree at the OpenGov Hub in DC. It was a wonderful moment to celebrate our journey with many of those that have helped us along the way. And it really has been a shared effort – we couldn’t possibly have got as far as we have without the love and support of our partners who have “walked the walk” with us (we handed out some very stylish Accountability Lab socks to recognize that fact!

Our translocal network of Labs has seen everything over the past twelve years- from Ebola in Liberia and floods in Pakistan, to conflict and fragility in Mali and  COVID…everywhere. And we believe that we’ve emerged a stronger, better organized and more sustainable organization as a result.  There is so much that goes into keeping a nonprofit afloat, remaining committed to a set of values and hopefully doing good work at the same time. Here are just a few of the organizations we love and respect and who have helped us in various ways. For other nonprofits, we’d recommend checking out what they are doing too!. Our network labs also have their own social media threads here and here for example of others they have found to be key partners within specific contexts:

1. Governance– it was the lovely people at Sheppard Mullin that helped us get up and running originally; and we’re working these days with the Lex Mundi Pro Bono Foundation which is a fantastic network of lawyers. Beyond many, many incredible Board members, we’ve also learned a lot from organizations with super effective governance processes; and from organizations like ProInspire on how to get co-leadership right. The Leadership Transition Community is also an incredible resource for any founders and leaders in the social space looking to better understand their organizational journeys.
2. Operational tools– there is a lot the Lab does that we’ve improved through finding the best, cheapest tools to do the job. Some of our current favorite partners include- Trello for project management from the awesome Atlassian; Kobo Toolbox for data collection; Zeck for board governance processes; Sprout Social for social media management and analysis; Tech Soup for discounted Zoom, Adobe, Microsoft and Quickbooks products; Fluxx for grant management; and Mailchimp for newsletters.
   
3. Funding– we have built so many partnerships with amazing funders of different kinds (across governments, philanthropy and individuals), and as anyone in the non-profit space knows, this is such an important part of the work. The Royal Society of the Arts, Echoing Green and the BMW Foundation were our three earliest funders and were truly catalytic for us; and many others have taken a leap of faith afterwards for which we are grateful. We also want to give a shout out to donor coordination groups including the TAI Collaborative who consistently provide useful analysis and ideas on these issues.
4. Ecosystem building– let’s start with Development Gateway: An IREX Venture, Global Integrity and the OpenGov Hub– who have provided the physical support and allyship we have needed as we have grown (and started other Hubs around the world, in places like Liberia!) These days, partners like Sharing Strategies are doing a fantastic job of helping us align our advocacy efforts; and donors such as the Skoll Foundation and efforts including the Open Government Partnership have convened incredible people that have worked with us in so many important ways on accountability issues.
   
5. Values– Accountable Now has kept us focused on our internal accountability; while more practically, organizations like Open Briefing have helped us make our collective security and duty of care to each other real. Groups around the world like the Public Sector Accountability Monitor (PSAM); CIVICUS and the Global Fund for Community Foundations have also modeled for us what it means to be a values-driven organization. We’ve also learned a lot from non-profits working on DEI issues and building cultures of care including The Better Org (and here is a handy spreadsheet we use to understand what more we can do when it comes to inclusion).
   
6. Community– the community of organizations that have come through our programs continue to inspire and energize us in every way. Partners like the Kettering Foundation have allowed us to continue to nurture amazing members of our eco-system like Uzalendo Afrika Initiative; OpenDRC; Justice for Code Foundation, and the Promoters of Social Inclusion.  We are proud to see our alumni connected to global communities, like Simbarashe Hunzi and Mariam Odunayo Nurudeen Arole  who are part of the 2024 cohort of Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders, for example.
   7. Thought leadership– at our birthday event we thanked the Accountability Research Center for the deep intellectual inspiration they have provided us around accountability issues; and we have learned so much from other amazing partners including the School of Politics at Washington State University on ground-level research; the Corruption, Justice and Legitimacy Program on social norms; and think tank friends including SDPI on political economy issues in Pakistan and The Timbuktu Center on peacebuilding and community engagement in Mali.

There are so many more incredible partners out there that have helped, pushed, encouraged and pulled us forwards- and reflecting on all of this reminds me of how essential it is that we work together to build the ecosystems we need. As we pointed out in our 2023-2026 Strategy, at Accountability Lab we have built the organization we want to work for; now we want to help build the field in which we work. We’re happy to give a pair of very trendy socks to anyone that wants to walk the next phase of this journey with us!

Blair Glencorse