Community Foundations Initiative
Client: James Irvine Foundation
Project: Community Foundations Initiative
Service Area: Grantmaker Education
Content Area: Community Development
Capacity building was an important component of a $12 million initiative by the James Irvine Foundation to accelerate the growth and leadership of small and emerging community foundations in California.
Because of our experience with grantmaker training, csb philanthropic solutions was brought in to provide training on grantmaking practices for initiative participants. We designed and implemented all aspects of a convening on grantmaking for staff and board members of nine participating community foundations. We also developed small and large group exercises, created a resource manual, and designed presentations on grantmaking strategy and development.
Topics covered included the grantmaking cycle, grantee relationships, grant awards, grant reporting, portfolio evaluation, and ongoing engagement and learning. Based on the impact of this training, one of the community foundation participants requested a more in-depth and tailored version of the training for key grantmaking and executive staff from their foundation. We conducted a two-part training for this targeted group from Napa Valley Community Foundation that included an interactive grant proposal review, financial due diligence, site visit interaction protocols, and grant reporting.