Take a Virtual Coffee Break!

Philanthropy – we need each other to do it well, and it’s imperative that we make time to share stories, compare notes and answer questions. My favorite way to engage is over coffee or lunch, but that’s not always possible. Sometimes online advice – I call it a virtual coffee break – will do.

I know GrantCraft for their excellent guides, and I’ve used many of them in my work. The site has now been completely reorganized, making lots of great content much easier to locate and use. They’ve also made it easier to find out what other grantmakers have got brewing and to contribute your own lessons learned.

Maybe you’re working on an initiative that’s new to your community but has taken off elsewhere, or you have a burning question that you’d like a lot of people to weigh in on right now. Those are a couple of the reasons I’m hoping that GrantCraft’s new features really take off.

I encourage you to take a fresh look at the site, share your wisdom and comment on the questions asked by others. All of the discussions on the site are searchable and will be archived. Today when I checked, there were funders wondering how others help grantees beyond grants, how grantmakers help grantees find new money, challenges that arise when collaborating with other funders and how your organization structures challenge grants. These are all questions that I know many of our MCF members can help answer for other grantmakers.

Every success I have had in this field has been because of connections I’ve made and people I’ve met. GrantCraft now provides us a virtual opportunity to widen our networks and learn from grantmakers we haven’t yet met. If we take advantage of it, we’ll each improve our own practice, and we’ll better the field of philanthropy together. Let’s use it to stimulate real results!

– Trista Harris, MCF president

Learning When There’s No Time To Learn

How do you make time to learn when your e-mail box is overflowing and your to do list is ever growing? It’s a problem for everyone, including those who work in the field of philanthropy.

GrantCraft asked their readers how they think about time and how they manage it. More than 1,400 of their subscribers replied. Their general consensus was:

What matters is how people use time to learn and make sense of learning, individually and across a team or organization.

As one respondent put it, “Work never ends, and so we need to learn to manage our time to include learning on the job.”

Four lessons came out of the survey. Each is listed below with one reply illustrating how a respondent incorporates the lesson into their everyday work.

Lesson 1: Establish a culture of learning by building learning into routine processes.

Build in opportunities for learning as you go. Sometimes there isn’t time to do a long reflection process at the end of a project, but there can surely be steps along the way where everyone takes time to observe the knowledge exchange that is happening.

Lesson 2: Raise the profile of learning by noticing when it happens and naming it explicitly.

Start and end meetings with questions like, ‘If there’s one thing you’d like to say to others doing a similar thing, what would it be?’ – in other words, quick things that force people to be analytical.

Lesson 3: Cultivate personal habits of learning that work for you.

I drive to site visits a lot, so I use the time to reflect and think about ideas to explore when the pace allows. It may be a small thing, but turning off the radio and focusing thought on the work can be useful.

Lesson 4: Try new activities – but choose wisely and keep things simple.

Time is always a challenge. To help overcome it, we institutionalized some set-aside time for learning. For instance, we have a monthly book club-like discussion group session with recommended readings and discussion guides…

Find out much more about these and other ideas for learning when there’s no time to learn in the four-page survey summary from GrantCraft. 

Photo CC Dalo_Pix2

– Susan Stehling, Minnesota Council on Foundations

Catalyst and Collaborator: Philanthropy’s Role in Public Policy

An Interview with Minnesota State Rep. Nora Slawik

Throughout her six terms in the Minnesota House of Representatives, Rep. Slawik has collaborated with foundations working to advance several early childhood and education initiatives. We chatted following her participation on a public policy panel hosted by the Minnesota Council on Foundations.

Here is an excerpt of her interview. Read more of her Commentary in our just-published Summer issue of Giving Forum.

Q: What is philanthropy’s role in public policy?

State government and foundations are looking to solve the same issues facing our citizens, so it only makes sense that we work together.

Part of what we lack in the public policy arena is the ability to do strategic planning, because we need short-term wins. This is amplified by election cycles. Foundations can give us long-term perspectives on issues and solutions and help us make more strategic decisions. It’s particularly valuable when foundations provide funding to jump-start strategic planning for longer-term solutions, especially when government is facing a large deficit.

A recent example is the work of the School Readiness Funders Coalition. As part of its larger advocacy agenda, this group of foundations will fund the implementation of two pieces of the Early Childhood Policy Bill approved this session. Both focus on strategic planning by the Governor’s Early Childhood Advisory Council: $100,000 will fund exploration of the creation of an Office of Early Learning; an additional $58,000 will fund strategic planning for a statewide school readiness report card.

Philanthropy brings a non-partisan lens to issues by advocating for what it believes is best for the community. That more collaborative, strategic perspective is important to have at the table.

Evaluation also is lacking in state government. We haven’t funded or conducted it in areas such as early childhood, so when we try to compare the impact of programs such as Head Start and those focusing on child care, school readiness and preschool – all of which serve the same populations – we do not have good data. How do we decide what are good investments? Foundations can help us begin to evaluate, so we can look at reform.

Foundations can be a catalyst for change by funding pilot projects, and state government can look at making the most of the best ideas. This type of collaborative relationship truly can benefit the public, especially those most in need of assistance. If government gives a subsidy to a parent for child care, foundations can help make that quality child care.

Q: How do philanthropy and government address the great challenges of making progress in public policy?

Develop a common vision and determine benchmarks that demonstrate progress toward that goal. In early childhood, our goal is to have all children school ready by 2020. For the environment, we want most of the state’s energy companies to provide 25 percent of their power through renewable sources by 2025. What are benchmarks we can measure along the way to these goals?

Obviously there will be setbacks. Elections and turnover at foundations change the players, and there are economic cutbacks and societal shifts. We need to adjust, but we can remain true to a consistent goal.

In the political world, people take sides and we encounter opposition. We can’t count on trying to change minds, as legislators are often entrenched in their positions. It’s important to be respectful, acknowledge alternative voices, invite everyone to be part of the process, and not shut out anyone.

In the case of this session’s early childhood bills, some view the creation of an Office of Early Childhood as expansion of government, while I see it as government reform or redefinition. Regardless, we will encourage opposing legislators to be involved in the task forces created by the legislation. During the session, our basic message was, “We have a collaborative partnership with the foundations. Let’s get this passed, then let’s all be active in moving the state forward through early childhood.”

Passing a bill is not the end of the public policy process. It feels like an end, because we’ve accomplished something, but it’s really the beginning of the work to create change.

Timing is everything!

Just as we published Giving Forum, GrantCraft released its latest guide – Working With Government: Guidance for Grantmakers.

Filled with case studies of cross-sector collaborations, the guide sheds light on unfamiliar terrain for foundations and government and offers fresh insight into the benefits and risks of partnering. Developing relationships, navigating roles and power dynamics, and managing risks aren’t easy, but the resulting collaborations — as the funders highlighted in this guide attest — are important and highly effective.

 – Chris Murakami Noonan, MCF communications associate

What I Wish I Knew . . . with Trista Harris

Trista Harris, Executive Director of the Headwaters Foundation for Justice, thought she was going to run a nonprofit organization after graduate school, but her mentors gave her some great advice that changed the path of Trista’s career.  In this “What I Wish I Knew . . .” video, Trista explains how her advisor from the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs suggested that she take her interests in nonprofit capacity building to philanthropy, where she could spread her insight and energy to multiple organizations.

Trista says that affinity groups have been incredibly important to her professional development, as have resources from groups like GrantCraft.  But, she says one of the most important things to remember when taking a position in the field is that ” you didn’t get smarter, prettier, or funnier” when you started working for a foundation.  Trista says there are two ways to approach the work: you can either be a steward of community resources or you can act like you’ve won the lottery.  Trista encourages grantmakers to approach the work with humility and honesty for greater effectiveness.  Thanks, Trista!

View other videos in our “What I Wish I Knew . . .” series:

Ellis Bullock

Claire Chang

Jeneen Hartley Sago

Joan Cleary

Patrick Troska

– Stephanie Jacobs, MCF director of member services

Web-based Tools: What Works for Grantmakers

As a follow up to the inaugural MCF ComMotion Network meeting last week (a member network for grantmaker communications staff) and the MCN Technology and Communications Conference, here’s a quick entry about GrantCraft’s survey of over 1,500 grantmakers on how they’re using web-based communications tools to connect with the community, grantees and other stakeholders.

The free report, entitled How Do Web-based Tools Fit in Your Communications Strategy?, can be downloaded from the GrantCraft website after registering.

The report breaks down the popularity of certain tools, and it includes a wealth of one-liner anecdotes about how grantmakers have used online technology to connect more effectively. According to the report, four of the most popular ways of using web-based tools to connect with stakeholders is through online surveys (55%), followed by online videos (34%), social networking (32%) and webinars (28%).

The report cautions that, although online technologies can be well-suited for engaging those in rural communities, grantmakers should keep in mind bandwidth issues that may limit access to online media, especially video and webinars.

Finally, keep accessibility issues in mind when considering online communications. Some groups don’t have access to the internet at all.  And persons with disabilities and others are often under-served when sites are not made accessible with new adaptive technologies.

If you’re investigating web-based tools for your organization, check out GrantCraft’s  “What’s a Wiki Anyway?” page.  It has a list of different tools and services grantmakers reported using in the survey, and links to learn more.

Join the Conversation: At the MCF ComMotion Network meeting, members discussed how they’re using social media and other technologies to engage their stakeholders. If you’re a grantmaker, what new technologies have proven useful to you? If you’re a nonprofit, what’s been your experience with grantmakers using new communications tools to evaluate grants or to communicate with you? Please share your thoughts by commenting on this post.

– Cary Lenore Walski, MCF web communications associate

Considering Collaboration? Check Out Grantcraft’s New Report First.

While the full force of the economic downturn reaches nonprofits, many are being encouraged by funders, the public and the news media alike to consider opportunities to save money by collaborating on programs and sharing resources for back office operations.

Likewise, many in the grantmaking field are doing similar soul-searching to increase the efficiency of their giving, and also to avoid being perceived as disingenuous by the very nonprofits they may be asking to make sacrifices.

As one foundation president quoted in Grantcraft’s report on collaboration stated:

“Funders are asking nonprofits to do so much more in hard times — like merge or even go out of business. But how many foundations are doing the same? It’s the credibility issue; you know, we need to walk our talk.”

Fortunately for grantmakers exploring opportunities to collaborate, Grantcraft’s new guide titled “Funder Collaboratives: Why and How Funders Work Together” offers insights from the field on how grantmaking organizations can pool their resources to give more effectively and produce better outcomes in the communities they work.

Highlights include:

• How to design a collaborative to achieve project goals
• Questions to answer before beginning a collaborative
• Benefits and challenges of funder collaboratives
• Three case studies

Grantcraft’s guide on collaboration can be downloaded for free at grantcraft.org.

Join the conversation: Grantmakers, what strategies for collaboration and resource sharing are you considering? If you are actively engaged in a collaboration, what tips do you have for other grantmaking organizations who are considering doing the same?

-Cary Lenore Walski, MCF web communications associate