Using Flexible Funding in Long-Horizon Urban Transformation Work: Evidence from the WRI Ross Center Deep Dive Initiative This paper discusses how one non-governmental organization, World Resources Institute, used flexible funding to further transformation in cities. It reveals four ways flexible funding was deployed by WRI Ross Center's Deep Dive Initiative, the possible tensions that can emerge when blending flexible funding with project-based funds, and surfaces a set of “practice questions” to consider as organizations manage flexible funding. In the work of urban-focused non-governmental organizations (NGOs), funding structures dominated by tightly programmed funds are often mismatched to the non-linear nature of urban transformation work in practice. To illustrate the potential of alternative blended approaches, the paper analyzes how flexible, multi-year funding (not directly tied to predefined activities or timelines) can be used alongside project grants to support urban transformation amid political and institutional uncertainty. Based on WRI Ross Center’s six-year Deep Dive Initiative across 21 cities, the paper offers insights relevant to peer organizations operating in similar institutional and mixed funding contexts. Across cases, flexible funding was blended with programmed funds in four recurring modes, which allowed teams to make frequent adjustments in response to changing political conditions, partner readiness, or emerging opportunities by adapting the timing, sequencing, and scope of the work. - Seed funding: early exploration, relationship-building, and strategic entry - Add-on funding: layer on adjacent agendas and research onto existing work - Policy lifecycle funding: support early implementation after policy adoption - Gap funding: sustain engagement through interruptions or uncertainty Using flexible funding blended with programmed funds offers many benefits as well as introducing new organizational trade-offs that must be actively managed. These include a continued need for clear purpose and strategy, learning and accountability routines, and honesty about organizational capacity to navigate potential tensions that flexible funding