Ember Investment Insights: Learnings from our debut year as funders

Oct 24, 2023

Ember Investment Insights: Learnings from our debut year as funders

Ember's investment phase combined flexible grants with light-touch mentoring support to enable 5 community-based mental health projects in Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Ecuador and Kenya respectively, to continue strengthening their sustainability. All the learnings, as shared by initiatives working on the ground, have been presented in this blog. Click here to read or download the full report.

Community-based mental health initiatives (CBMHIs) play an essential role in the provision of mental health services, particularly in low-income settings. These initiatives are well positioned to understand the needs and priorities within their local contexts and are uniquely equipped to respond with tailored, culturally sensitive and sustainable strategies. However, these initiatives are significantly threatened by a lack of funding.

Ember decided to approach this challenge by supporting its first cohort of initiatives in 2022-2023. The five initiatives from our 2020-2021 cohort were selected to receive funding from Ember as part of a second phase of partnership.

This phase was designed to enable each investee to take a critical strategic step forward, with the grant covering difficult-to-fund costs that enable long-term shifts in the organisation's sustainability, such as professionalising their operational models, replicating in new settings or scaling up their activities, and light-touch mentorship to continue strengthening their sustainability.

This report highlights our reflections about the new investment phase- achievements, key takeaways, role of funders like Ember and the journeys of investees through case studies. Dive into the report by clicking the link below!

Read or download the full report here.