GEO's action learning peer groups have consisted of both large foundations and small, family and community foundations, those local in scope and those working internationally. Questions explored by GEO's action learning peer groups to date include:
- How can we best sustain seasoned nonprofit leaders? Read more...
- How can we strengthen the connections between our investments in individuals leaders and our organizational capacity efforts?
- How can we best structure general operating support such that grantmakers and grantees can demonstrate success? Read more...
- How can we leverage "failure" to improve our grantmaking and results?
- How can we best evaluate general operating support?
What changes have grantmakers made as a result of GEO's action learning peer groups?
In all cases, participants identified specific actions appropriate to their grantmaking organization. These actions ranged from significant changes in grantmaking strategy to smaller "five percent" shifts to existing practice:
- Two foundations chose to infuse leadership support throughout other grantmaking areas instead of housing leadership development in a separate silo.
- Several grantmakers applied GEO's action learning peer group process to work with their own grantees.
- A subset of participants in our first pilot group decided to work together for a field-wide evaluation of sabbatical programs.
|
"There is no way we could have accomplished all that we did without the benefit of a cadre of such smart colleagues -- and in such a short amount of time and for the price of admission."
-- GEO action learning participant |
Smaller shifts of existing practice that brought about significantly greater returns included:
- Incorporating questions about secondary benefits of sabaticals into existing program evaluation.
- Incorporating the question of how best to attract and retain "next generaion" leaders into an ongoing leadership workshop series.
- Follow-up with previous leadership development grantees to find out how they took what they learned back into their organizations.
In addition, participants learn an easy, light-touch, but structured learning process that can be applied to other programs and activities.
|
How does it work?
The basic format is this:
- GEO identifies an initial framing question and invites members to join a cohort. The questions frequently come from our membership and from issues that GEO tracks in philanthropy.
- GEO facilitates a two-hour conference call of the full cohort to convey the basics of the process and refine, if necessary, the framing question.
- Participants prepare a short story describing their past experience and lessons learned related to the framing question.
- GEO facilitates a two-day, faciltiated retreat at which participants share their experience, develop insights and theories of success and leave with action plans to test out these theories over the next 3-4 months.
- GEO facilitates a final two-hour, facilitated conference call 3-4 months later during which particpants report on their progress and additional lessons learned.
For $3,500 per organization (plus travel costs), each organization may send two-person teams. For this minimal investment (compared to the cost of hiring a consultant), you will make progress on a particular challenge you are facing now with a room full of smart colleagues. GEO’s customized peer learning process identifies the most appropriate cohort members and clarifies the urgent framing question faced by members of the group. Benefiting from professional facilitation and on-the-ground experience of your peers, you leave with an organization-specific action plan – all for two to eight times less than you would pay an external consultant and for a far smaller investment of time. Members who provide general operating support to GEO of $75,000 or higher per year may waive this fee. |
Past Participating Organizations
Annie E. Casey Foundation
Barr Foundation
Blue Shield of California Foundation
California Endowment
California HealthCare Foundation
The California Wellness Foundation
The Cleveland Foundation
The Duke Endowment
Durfee Foundation
Endowment for Health
Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund
Foellinger Foundation
Forbes Fund
Hartford Foundation for Public Giving
Packard Foundation
Philadelphia Foundation
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Saint Luke's Foundation
Sierra Health Foundation
SVP Seattle
UJA-Federation of New York
The Wallace Foundation
The Whitman Institute
Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation
|
How do you create a GEO Action Learning Peer Group?
Key to the success of an action learning peer group is having the right people in the room who care deeply about a question, the answers to which will make concrete differences in their grantmaking or in the work of their grantees. Participants have past experience addressing the issue, are committed to improving their practice and have sufficient decision-making authority to implement changes.
GEO is currently helping members organization action learning peer groups on such questions as:
- What does it mean to build leadership across or throughout a field?
- What will it take to involve grantees and other community stakeholders in the development of grantmaking strategies?
- How can we streamline our application and reporting processes in order to increase the "net grant" for grantees?
- What are the best ways of providing and assessing the impact of long-term capacity building support?
So you want to start a GEO Action Learning Group?
Contact Jillaine Smith, GEO's manager of action learning at 202.898.1843 or actionlearning AT geofunders.org. We'll help develop the best cohort for the challenge you're seeking to address.