The following was contributed by MissionWise consultant Cindy Coney, who
recently returned from the Philanthropy Northwest Annual Conference for Grantees and Funders in
Missoula, Montana.
To me, the theme of collaboration was really
evident throughout this conference. It was amazing to see everyone from
grantees to funders sharing ideas, speaking up, and enjoying being
together.
For our workshop: Grantee Business Plans for Funders, I thought,
how much better can it get than a consultant from Florida collaborating
with a CEO in Alaska? Jeff Jessee and I laughed about the diversity we
represented.
Jeff’s partnership with X is a hand-on example of
the great work he’s doing around this collaborative model. He worked with a group who had received five year funding to
build a building, but did not know how to go about finding land, hiring an
architect, and were already three years into the project! His group
stepped in with strategic consulting to make the project a success.
Other hot topics that sparked lively debate:
Whether there should be more or fewer
nonprofits in the United States right now. Most participants seemed to lean
towards having fewer, stronger nonprofits with philanthropists acting as the
intermediary between organizations.
Another was about traditional giving from
foundations; especially, what happens near the end of the grant cycle when
funding is running out. My suggestion was to implement the MissionWise model, or a shift in
the bell curve of funding: less dollars at first with focused money spent
on capacity building, the full amount in the middle, then beginning to
wean nonprofits off these dollars by providing technical assistance around
sustainability. This could represent a paradigm shift in
philanthropic giving.
All in all, it was a great conference and
time well spent, thanks to Philanthropy Northwest for putting on such great event.
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