Vechi-Learning-a-fost-publicat - INSPIRE Architecture for Change

Learning experiences

Enhance your abilities to shape a philanthropy powered by belonging, where communities tap into their own assets, leadership and problem-solving capacities.

Our approach to learning focuses on building core capabilities.

We create accessible knowledge materials, host workshops to dive deeper into areas of practice and curate in-person visits to community foundations.

The essential feature

Learning is an essential feature of organizations that are able to create new opportunities for development in increasingly complex global, national and local contexts.

We work with leaders of community foundations and support organizations to strengthen their abilities to be responsive, creative and nimble in their work of starting structures for collaboration at different levels of action.

Our approach

Discovering the building blocks

The knowledge base we draw from combines theory with practices harvested from different community foundation movements across the world.

Practitioners and supporters are continuously testing principles, introducing new practices and creating fresh insights that can serve the entire field, especially professionals who are currently opening up new spaces for community foundation movements to emerge.

Map key stages

Building movements is not a linear process. Seeing the big picture and key stages helps set milestones and intentionally design the steps towards building a vibrant movement.

Build core capabilities

Strengthening essential skills yields results. The learning experiences we create focus on the five building blocks of an impactful community foundation practice.

Learn by doing

Knowing is not enough to influence change. The best learning space is daily practice, as intentions are carried into your organization, your relationships and ways of working.

Key stages

Discover the CF model
Build the support organization
Develop alliances and fundraise
Find and inspire future CF leaders
Accompany CF initiatives
Support young community foundations
Support the CF movement
Evaluate progress and design for the future

Zoom in

Each stage can be zoomed in on and broken down into steps.

For example, Capsule #1 focuses on the elements of stage 1 – discovering the CF model.

Capsule #3 focuses on the steps in stages 2 to 4 – supporting initiative groups to become community foundations.

Core capabilities

Community engagement
Fund development
Grant making
Governance
Strategic design

Zoom in

Each core capability can be zoomed in on and imagined as a learning goal.

The Capsule #3 Booster presents learning experiences that support organizations can design into their accompaniment program to stimulate the development of core abilities.

Practices

Articulate your vision
Design and test experiments
Reflect and iterate

Zoom in

Each practice can be zoomed in on to consider how it is applied in the everyday work of your organization, in different processes.

For support organizations, the Capsule #3 Booster shows these practices at play in the process of accompanying initiative groups seeking to become community foundations.

Knowledge Capsules

Explore video journeys into the value, practices and impact of community foundations

The capsules are created to help you spark your partners’ imagination, inspire potential founders and configure your own steps towards supporting initiative groups and community foundations.

Each capsule has around 20 anchor points organized by key stages, from the opportunities that community foundations have to be organizations for the future, to their role within a local ecosystem of development.

They include insights on the core capabilities that sustain a successful support practice.

Conversations on practice

Advance the thinking and doing of our field in open conversation

Catalyst infrastructure

Think out loud, in dialogue, both the field and the practical questions of harnessing community philanthropy to advance local power and capacity, enhancing how communities act on their potential.

We act as harvesters and publishers of conversations that start from the real world dilemmas and revelations of the professionals that take the time to reflect on the effects of their work

Our ambition is to shift philanthropic practice towards building the new, for ecosystems where agency for transformation is incentivized, multiplied and distributed.

Workshops

Dive deeper into the core capabilities of impactful community foundation work

Zoom in on the building blocks of community foundation and support organization work to surface distinctions, discuss different approaches and apply tools that align the daily practice with the vision of transformation.

Change is cumulative. It is the result of initial choices that compound over time. Thinking through those choices and investing in finding fitting approaches for the kind of impact we are seeking generates a return as capacity, capability, connections, credibility and catalyst power.

Study Visits

See how community foundations, donors, grantees and partners collaborate in real life

Inquire

Experience the ways in which community foundations work on the ground and get an introduction into the collaboration systems they have built locally and nationally.

Concepts become palpable and communities reveal themselves as nuanced, often familiar places to the new and experienced practitioners who travel to see how their peers work in their own territories.

Powerful learning experiences, field visits are opportunities to connect with the tangible realities of community foundation work and its results.

“It was so important for me, at this starting point in my country, when we are just thinking on how we can build a community foundations movement. It was really rich and important at this point to have all these conversations with the founders, the staff, board members… all the people who are part of this movement.”

"We are so happy to have had the opportunity to see and learn about the whys, the hows and the what to implement a solution that, in our eyes, will really be valuable for sustainable and autonomous development in Colombia."

"It was very interesting. We received information about the creation of foundations, the specifics of the work, the path and experience. Detailed information was provided on all issues. Also, the emotional side was important, we were charged with their energy, which is a bigger push for me personally. It was important to draw parallels between the situations in the two countries and discuss risk factors. Thank you for that really necessary and interesting teaching."

“We are trying to learn more about community foundations because we don’t know them that well in Colombia. It has been a great experience being here and really understanding the importance of community foundations — how they actually create and strengthen the social ecosystem in a community.”

"We were lucky to meet really qualified, professional community leaders who for 4 days introduced us to the history, difficulties and ways of success of community foundations operating in Romania. You are professionals who know exactly what resources are needed to create and develop a community organization. During these days I have become convinced once again that community life needs common ground: value coherence, shared responsibility, readiness and openness to dialogue."

The Association for the Practice of Transformation (APT) supports the intentional and systemic transformations of individuals, organizations, communities and societies by stimulating collaboration, research, learning, social innovation and strategic thinking.

INSPIRE is a program powered by APT with the generous support of the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.

hello@inspire-change.org

We are a Romania-based nonprofit legal entity. Most of our team is based in Romania, UTC+3.

Learning experiences

The essential feature

Our approach