With a key focus on growing impact, some nonprofits, funders and other stakeholders are coming together to make positive community change. Recognizing that operating within the confines of a single organization is often insufficient to create widespread, lasting change, these groups are experimenting with networked and movement-oriented approaches to growing impact. By deepening relationships with one another, working across silos and putting a shared vision ahead of their individual agendas, these bright spots in our field have found ways to make more progress on pressing social challenges than they otherwise could alone. Many agree with this concept in theory, yet often grantmakers struggle to understand how to put it into practice. What are the secrets to success for building strong organizations, networks and movements? What changes might grantmakers and nonprofits need to make to collaborate more effectively? What is the grantmaker’s role in supporting movements and movement-oriented efforts?
On November 18 – 19, 2013, in Washington, D.C., Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, through its Scaling What Works initiative, will host a conference to explore the role of movements in driving social change and how grantmakers can support them. The conference will build upon GEO’s recent body of programming on various pathways to growing impact, including catalyzing networks, engaging in strategic co-funding and committing to other joint approaches. Participants will have the opportunity to learn from a range of high-impact, collaborative efforts that put a common mission ahead of individual organizations. Conference sessions will delve into specific contributions grantmakers can make, such as connecting people and groups working in common areas, funding infrastructure that enables collaborations to thrive, supporting policy change and advocacy, and emphasizing long-term learning and impact over short-term judgments.