“There needs to be a call to action in this field around relationships and trust.” – Jamie Allison, S. H. Cowell Foundation I was in the audience when Jamie (also a TWI trustee) made that compelling statement last September during the closing plenary of Towards a Better Place: A Conversation about Promising Practice in Place-Based…
TWI held its first weekend retreat in October 2007 with the aim of bringing together our current grantees with our board and staff for a weekend of reflection, renewal, and relationship building. With that aim still in mind, we held our sixth one earlier this month in Santa Cruz. I’m thankful to TWI board member,…
I want to build off of Pia Infante’s recent post lauding Ford Foundation President Darren Walker’s letter explaining significant shifts in both what and how the foundation funds. Pia lifts up that Ford not only engaged in a deep process of listening to its grantees – they actually acted on what they heard. In closing…
As I pondered where to start my series of reflections on barriers to multi-year, unrestricted funding, a scene from two years ago came to mind: I was at The Center for Effective Philanthropy’s national conference in Detroit. It was the “Q&A” portion of a plenary session on the meeting’s last day and someone stood up…
Last week, Pia ended a really thoughtful and heartfelt post by asking us how we survive spiritually in our work. What buoys us? She began her reflection by noting that she was marking her first year as TWI’s co-executive director. I’ll begin my answer to her question there as well – primarily because the first…