Giving Circles Network
Giving Circle Learning
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Giving Circles Network
Giving Circle Learning |
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Learning for the leaders and members of a Giving Circle, as with any organization -- no matter how formal or informal -- is essential to the long-term effectiveness and capacity-building of the Circle. It is not just about reading up on grantees (although that's necessary) or going to a workshop. Your Circle's view of learning can affect and thereby enhance your Circle's strategy, operations, services and impact. Here's a quick view of the Continuous Learning cycle: Vision [ Approach [ Strategic Learning [ Just-in-Time Learning [ Feedback & Evaluation[ Process Improvement Vision: Giving Circles, as organizational philanthropic entities -- however formal or informal, can benefit from establishing a learning vision for their Circle and their members. That vision, at the broadest level should enable the Circle as a whole to continuously learn and enhance itself, so as to be able to better understand and impact the:
Approach: Learning can be strategic, just-in-time topic related (i.e., learned on as as-needed basis), gained via training sessions, and/or continuous through feedback and evaluations, whether from the Circle's leaders, members, grantees or other beneficiaries. When a Giving Circle plans its organizational strategy, it should include a plan on educating its leaders, members, and employees through a learning approach. This will assist the Circle to achieve an organized approach to keeping its organization abreast of information that is needs to effectively function and best serve its mission. Short-Term Training: Make it Strategic: Giving Circles have recommended that -- when seeking short-term training for its leaders or members -- it is most advantageous to make that training strategic. They recommend that the Circle determine what its leaders and members need most at that point in time to achieve its purpose. That could be training in a variety of subjects, including how to evaluate proposals, how to read financial statements, or even how to conduct a site visit of grantee. Just-In-Time Learning: Just-in-Time (JIT) learning is accessing and gaining knowledge just at the moment and in the amount needed. Often, such JIT learning can most easily be accessed via the internet and relevant knowledge bases, and hence can be done individually but then shared with the rest of the Circle. Here are some KBs that Circles can access to gain information on a JIT basis:
Feedback & Evaluation: Every organization, including Giving Circles (however formal or informal, big or small), can take advantage of feedback -- even anecdotal, evaluations, and assessments. Circles can solicit formal or informal feedback from its own leaders, hosts, members, newsletter recipients, website users, grantees, or other stakeholders through feedback forms, formal surveys or verbally during meetings. The Circle can conduct period (end-of-year) evaluations with the Board, its members and -- if there are employees -- also of their employees. Your Circle, if ambitious, can also undertake a 360o evaluation, which is essentially collecting feedback from all stakeholders at the same time:
While a larger effort that collecting feedback from one or two sources, it does give your Circle a complete view of how all stakeholders are experiencing the effectiveness of your organization, based on its intended mission. For more information, go to the: GCN Feedback and Evaluation Links now. Continuous Process Improvement: On a periodic basis -- whether annually or more often, an organization such as a Giving Circle can benefit from assessing the feedback and evaluations that it has compiled as a whole and gleaning information on how it can improve its organizational vision, approach, strategy, processes and procedures. If the Circle incorporates that assessment back into its organization, it is called process improvement, and if the Circle regularly does that (even if that is annually or bi-annually), it is called continual process improvement. Continuous Learning: The idea of continuous learning is that the Circle never stops learning and can continuously enhance its effectiveness by not only strategic education, training and just-in-time learning as noted above, but also ongoing learning from feedback and evaluations. The knowledge gained from any learning engagement type can enhance the organization. However, learning solicited from stakeholders and beneficiaries can lead to process improvement if the Circle incorporates those specific lessons and recommendations into the Circle's operations. This effort can thereby continuously improve the Circle's processes and procedures -- and hence effectiveness and ability to impact the issues it seeks to address. General: Background - Giving Trends & Top Issues in Philanthropy
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