Funders are increasingly focusing their support, not just on what to fund, but how to provide critical and systemic support to ensure that an organization also strengthens its capacity to carry out its mandate. Capacity building work is exciting because it provides the platform for building effective and sustainable organizations and programs that maintain the core values that drive them, manage the work effectively and allow them to be responsive to the inevitable changes they are faced with. In our approach to capacity building we take a multi-faceted approach of looking at a range of competencies. These may include:
Hirji + White worked with CEGN/CFC to strengthen the capacity of Canadian community foundations to fund in the environmental sector. Building on the experience and learnings of the few community foundations funding in this area, we worked with a steering group to develop a framework for how to support and encourage more community foundations to engage in this work. We created training materials that included an environmental scan, an exploration of the issues related to funding within the environment, challenges and opportunities, and what it takes to do this work well. We tested these materials by delivering workshops at five regional community foundation meetings across the country. Using this experience, we created a manual and facilitators guide so that these workshops can continue to be delivered to other community foundations using a peer training approach without external assistance or funding. Our work helped created a sustainable way to build the current and future capacity of Canadian community foundations to fund in the environment.
http://www.cfc-fcc.ca/environment/index.cfm?lang=0
When a funder is approached with a new and exciting initiative and they are the first funder approached, there is always some trepidation. Is there a need for this new initiative? Can it become sustainable in the future? How will they know it is making a real difference? How can they reduce the potential for dependence? These questions were raised by the Law Foundation of Ontario for LAWS, an exciting program that connected the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto with the Toronto District School Board and two inner-city schools to create a program aimed at encouraging students to consider post-secondary education where they might not have. We worked with the LAWS Steering Committee, comprised of diverse stakeholders including the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, the Toronto District School Board and the two participating schools. We helped create a Logic Model for the program that clarified the scope of the program for which funding was being requested. Once there was common agreement on the desired outcomes and parameters of the program, we helped the Steering Committee develop a sustainability plan that included three inter-connected components:
Our worked helped to lay the ground for an effective program and its future sustainability to the satisfaction of the Steering Committee and the funder.
http://www.lawinaction.ca/