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Dear NNCG Community,
Knowledge - in all its many forms - is central to our work as consultants to grantmakers. As a field, we are swimming in an ocean of potentially useful information. There’s so much good material out there that you might struggle to keep up with what’s good, what’s current, and what’s going to be most useful to your work. This issue of the NNCG Newsletter highlights our “knowledge work,” as member Angela Fruciente, PhD, calls it in this newsletter, and asks us to think more about this question: How do we know what we know?
As consultants, we play a crucial role sharing, building, and mobilizing both tacit and explicit knowledge, but I want to focus here on everything out there that's already captured in writing or another form. We spend a lot of time looking for those “just right” articles, blogs, reports, case studies, videos, infographics -- often not organized for easy access. Perhaps, like me, you find yourself combing through your own voluminous files, searching for resources from trusted organizations that you know or suspect might have relevant information, and often hollering for help from friends and colleagues in the field. This process can feel duplicative (surely someone has already done this scan?) and arbitrary rather than systematic.
While we are always going to keep our own annotated lists, landscape scans, and categorized folders of curated resources that we have found helpful, NNCG’s promise is to make finding what you need easier, more up-to-date, and a little less reliant on serendipity.
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The Listserv - Our member listserv provides a robust forum for crowdsourcing resources and knowledge. Got a question? Put it out to members@nncg.memberclicks.net and see what you get in response from the generous NNCG community.
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The Knowledge Center - NNCG partnered with Candid to build a Knowledge Center to house resources authored and created by NNCG members. It is a treasure trove of searchable knowledge - but we know there are so much more out there. Send us your knowledge products, past and present, so that we can make this resource as effective as possible. The Knowledge Center also codifies lessons learned and insights about philanthropy consulting.
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Sharing our own knowledge about consulting in the field. NNCG’s programming mobilizes members’ tacit and explicit knowledge about what it takes to consult effectively in our field. Years ago, we wrote some of this up in an issue of the Foundation Review (See that 2015 issue here). After ten years of learning, maybe it’s time to think about doing that again!
We’d like to know more about what types of knowledge you are looking for, gathering, and creating! What have you published that you’d like to share more widely? What are your favorite resources right now? What do you wish you had? Let us know on the listserv!
Do you have questions, ideas, insights, or jokes? Please feel free to reach out to me anytime at jessica@bearmanconsulting.com.
Warmly,
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Jessica Bearman
Chair, NNCG Steering Committee
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NNCG Knowledge Center Showcase | |
Knowledge Practice for Equity
An Introduction by Angela Frusciante, PhD
Principal, Knowledge Designs to Change LLC
Knowledge work is essentially about shared meaning making. It is what we do together to understand and build the society and world that we desire. It is about gathering information, engaging in conversation, naming what is important and stating what we understand about ourselves, our work and the broader world at any point in time.
Within formal philanthropy, knowledge practice has a long history from the early days of demonstration research projects to the current emphasis on evaluation and activities like data analysis, storytelling, landscape scanning, and assessment. Today, as philanthropy is increasingly embracing equity and social change, a strong knowledge practice is core to success because it is about how we move forward together and how we stay the course.
When grounded in the essence of shared meaning making, knowledge work unapologetically holds space for equity intentions. If foundation strategy isn’t feeling equity centered, a solid knowledge practice deepens an equity focus. If a grantmaking approach is stagnating, knowledge work encourages exploration and creativity. If philanthropic strategy might be shifting quickly toward the next “new” craze, knowledge work holds steady while embodying change.
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Co-creating Effective and Inclusive Organizations
Putting Equity, Justice & Heartwork at the Center of Whole-Systems Change
Published By: CEIO & Knowledge Designs to Change
January 2020
This research marks important advances in co-creating inquiry methodology with change agents who are working in and through equity initiatives. Knowledge Designs to Change greets change work from inside the values of the work itself. One aspect of our shared power lies in asking questions and, together, developing processes that illuminate our lived experiences. Whether we make meaning through words or numbers or art, knowledge processes are about shared and embodied action. Learn more about our inquiry process in the meaning making section.
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NNCG's Knowledge Center is a searchable, online database of resources for and about grantmaking, produced by highly qualified and experienced philanthropy consultants.
NNCG's Knowledge Center contains a wealth of reports, case studies, infographics, issue briefs, videos and more that offer ideas, research and helpful information about almost every aspect of philanthropy. Each item was authored or published by an NNCG member.
NNCG constructed the Knowledge Center in partnership with Candid -- one of the most respected and trusted sources of information in the philanthropic field.
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The State of American Philanthropy
September 2023
The State of American Philanthropy is a series of background papers on important topics and trends in U.S. philanthropy. The papers draw on past research and reporting by IP writers, as well as new interviews, grantmaking data, and other sources.
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Rural Philanthropy in the Southwest
October 1, 2022
Rural communities, while often small, have a large impact on the livelihood of all Americans. As resource centers for water, food, energy, and recreation, rural areas provide many of the resources for communities in urban, suburban, and rural settings to thrive. In fact, 97% of the United States is technically geographically defined as rural, with much of the Southwest being considered rural, by measures of both geography and population density.
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LGBTQ+ Nonprofit Organizations in
the United States: Growth, Trends, Concerns, and the Outlook for Philanthropic Giving
September 1, 2022
To date, very little research has been conducted on LGBTQ+ nonprofits (Meyer, Dale, & Willis, 2021; Surfus, 2013) and how they function. For example, in a recent study of academic literature, Meyer et al. (2021) discovered only 40 academic articles published within the last 46 years on various LGBTQ+ issues and how they intersect with nonprofits.
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Centering equity and justice in climate philanthropy
June 9, 2022
According to available funding data, most institutional funders do not incorporate climate or climate justice strategies into their work despite its urgency and potential, largely relegating it to a few environmental funders. As a result of underestimating its importance and its connection to other philanthropic priorities, not enough funding is flowing to climate change efforts and even less of it for reducing harm to communities most impacted by the climate crisis.
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Philanthropic Self-Reflection Tool for Equitable Parent Partnership
May 18, 2022
The journey towards authentic partnership and equitable collaboration with parents is an ongoing process and requires regular reflection, inquiry, and conversation to maximize your positive impact and avoid causing harm to parent leaders and the community. We are all doing our best, but consistent self-evaluation allows your organization to have the greatest impact. The Philanthropic Self-Reflection Tool for Equitable Parent Partnership provides a framework for these reflections and helps to process what your team learns.
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Knowledge Center Featured Authors | |
Welcome New & Renewing Members | | |
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BDO's Jennifer Pedroni and Hilda Polanco presented at PEAK Grantmaking's convening in May.
Check out the highlights if you want to learn more about supporting nonprofit financial health.
Read Now
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Mark Hager shares his interview with Kennard Wing for NVS Quarterly.
"Where did the nonprofit starvation cycle idea come from? Check out my interview with Kennard Wing, the originator, on the genesis of the cycle 20 years ago."
Read Now
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Tamela Spicer of The Intentional Catalyst shares a piece she co-authored with Trish Abalo for the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy blog.
“[T]raditional, foundation-funded capacity building is increasingly criticized for its origins in white dominant culture and its continued practice of serving white-led nonprofits.”
Read Now
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⭐ Featured Member Corner ⭐
Board & Governance + Equity
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