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C05 Pre-Conference: Place-Based Capacity Building Mini-Conference
Sponsored by BEST and TCC Group
Place-Based Capacity Building Mini-Conference:
How Funders, Capacity Builders and Nonprofits Connect for Long-Term Community Change
Thursday 9:00am - 4:00pm
Price: $100 Members; $175 Non-members
Track: Collaboration
Presenters
Anne Glendon, Glendon Associates; Peter York, TCC Group; Ellen Koenig, New Hampshire Center for Nonprofits; Lorri Johnson, Dannemiller Tyson Associates, Peggy Kieschnick, SCENE; Alice Hart, Consultant
Description
Has your local nonprofit community struggled to get the support it needs for high-quality capacity building?
Place-based capacity building offers an approach to developing long-term, sustainable structures based at the local level and rooted in the needs and ambitions of the local community. When funders, capacity builders and nonprofits come together to share resources, knowledge and expertise, they can improve the health of the entire nonprofit community in ways that one project or investment at a time cannot. Place-based capacity building is a holistic, comprehensive and integrated approach that’s in alignment with local realities to achieve lasting community change.
This full-day mini-conference will present an overview of the design, implementation, lessons learned and results to date of four geographically-based capacity-building initiatives that originate in distinctly different communities: a highly diverse urban metropolis; a mid-sized industrial city/county facing multiple political and economic challenges; a rapidly growing small city making the transition from farming and tourism to a more diversified economy and culture; and, a New England statewide project.
Participants in this very practical and collaborative session will have a real-time dialogue with capacity builders from across North America involved in place-based initiatives. In addition, you'll go home with a host of resources and information: names of people and organizations engaged in place-based capacity building; organizational assessment tools and evaluation strategies; understanding what can go right and how to sustain place-based initiatives; candid accounts of what can go wrong and how to avoid the pitfalls.
"Capacity building is like politics – you can have wonderful theories, but unless the programs are rooted in the local context, they don't go anywhere!" says co-presenter, Anne Glendon, lead consultant of the BEST Project in Flint, MI.
"When so many initiatives deal with the 'crisis of the day,' place-based capacity building offers a different approach," says co-presenter, Peter York, who is engaged in New Hampshire's SCENE Project. "It looks at how to improve an organization as a whole as well as the needs of the broader community."
Join representatives from place-based initiatives across the country for this stimulating dialogue, workshop, and community-building mini-conference to explore the focus, context, desired outcomes and strategic moments of each project from inception to implementation. And, you are sure to walk away with contacts and resources to help you improve or create your place-based initiative!
About the Presenters
Anne Glendon, Glendon Associates
Anne Glendon, President of Glendon Associates, is a senior consultant and facilitator whose practice focuses primarily on nonprofit organizations. The firm uses a whole-system, asset-based approach to organizational evaluation and development to help clients build adaptive capacity to ensure sustainability and community relevance. Ms. Glendon has extensive experience working with foundations, libraries, health and human service agencies, arts organizations, faith based groups and multi-sector community partnerships. Recent clients include the CS Mott Foundation, Ruth Mott Foundation, Flint Funders Collaborative and the BEST Pilot Project; Rotary Charities, the Great Lakes Water Studies Institute and the Great Lakes Nonprofit Institute; the NonProfit Alliance in Battle Creek; Spanish Speaking Information Center and the International Institute; Novi, Ann Arbor and Chelsea District Libraries; Corner Health Center and the Brain Injury Association of Michigan; regional church conferences and congregation leadership; and a diverse array of other nonprofit and for-profit entities. Areas of special interest and expertise: Organizational Assessment; Strategic Planning; Board and Staff Leadership Development; Mission and Program Alignment; Resource Development; Meeting and Partnership Facilitation; Collaborations, Mergers and Strategic Restructuring.
Alice Hart, Consultant
Alice Hart is a consultant from Ann Arbor Michigan who has worked in the non-profit sector for over 25 years. She directed an applied research unit at the University of Michigan-Flint and then was Vice President for Program at the Community Foundation of Greater Flint. For the past year she has worked for the BEST project, a funders’ collaborative in Flint that provides integrated comprehensive capacity building assistance to non-profit organizations. She is a new member of the Alliance and welcomes the opportunity to network on issues of foundation evaluation and MSO's.
Lorri Johnson, Dannemiller Tyson Associates
Lorri is a senior partner with Dannemiller Tyson Associates specializing in organization and community development. Her experience with whole system processes includes strategic planning and deployment, leadership development and coaching, organization and work redesign, culture change, and community transformation initiatives. Lorri has consulted in a wide range of settings ranging from information technology to health care as well education, government, unions, and non-profit organizations. Her clients include The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, National Caucus and Center for the Black Aged, Seattle Public Schools, Washington State Learning First Alliance, and YWCA of Greater Flint (MI). Lorri is a faculty member of the School for Managing and Leading Change. Her background includes 14 years experience with Xerox Corporation and Bell & Howell in the areas of human resources, sales and marketing.
Peggy Kieschnick, SCENE
Peggy has worked with non-profits since 1978 and has ten years of experience as a consultant for schools and nonprofits in Maine and New Hampshire. Her work includes strategic planning, leadership development, and meeting facilitation, program evaluation, and grant-writing. She is currently supporting the work of the New Hampshire SCENE Initiative in her role as Project Planning Coordinator.
Ellen Koenig, New Hampshire Charitable Foundation
Ellen has been a Senior Program Officer at the New Hampshire Charitable for 5 years, and has the dream job of being able to give other people’s money away to those who need it most. In addition to regular grant-making work, Ellen also coordinates the Corporate Fund, a philanthropic collection of NH’s most generous companies; e-cares, a philanthropic imitative of NH’s technology community, and the Walker Fund, which donates funding to NH public schools. Ellen is also deeply immersed in a project to bring funders together to better support the strength of all NH nonprofits. Prior to joining the NH Charitable Foundation, Ellen ran a nonprofit in Concord for 12 years.
Peter York, TCC Group
Peter York, Senior Consultant and Director of Evaluation at TCC Group, specializes in designing and conducting "stakeholder-led" and "learning-based" evaluations and designing evaluation systems for nonprofit organizations, foundations and corporations. York also specializes in evaluating capacity building initiatives, and has written a number of articles and papers, presented at national and regional conferences, and held trainings/workshops on the topic. Recent capacity building evaluation work includes leading, designing and implementing the evaluation of: the Flint Funders Collaborative in Flint, Michigan; the IT Resource Center in Chicago, Illinois; the Pfizer Foundation’s capacity building support of AIDS Service Organizations throughout the South; the William Penn Foundation's support of capacity building in the Delaware Valley region; the David and Lucile Packard Foundation’s Organizational Effectiveness Program; a jointly funded initiative to improve nonprofit organizations' use of strategic restructuring/partnering as a capacity building tool; Eureka Communities; and the Microsoft NPower initiative.
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