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Largest Crowd Ever

6/20/2014  wrap notes - Today’s meeting topic brought new faces to the table. Among them were Sarah Boxx of Social Entrepreneurs, Deb Loesch Griffin of Turning Point, and Brenda Freeman of UNR, who were there to move our discussion from “what” to “how.” And they did a great job of that. Mike Pomi of the Children’s Cabinet started our meeting off with his reason for being at all of these meetings: we are focusing on increasing the capacity of our community’s nonprofits by focusing on developing evidence-based practices. Doing this will develop community resources, increase granting opportunities, and further EBP efforts already being done in our community. The group then talked specifically about how to do this. Sarah Boxx of Social Entrepreneurs, Inc. gave three concise steps: 1) pick a cohort of 8-10 nonprofits that will commit to the process; 2) have that cohort commit 2-4 individuals each who will be consistent participants in the process; 3) develop a strategic business plan that includes all aspects necessary to execute the plan. Lots of discussion, questions, and thoughts were exchanged in a fast-paced discussion that led to this collection of notes:

  • Start with an organization assessment of each cohort member to identify strengths and capacities
  • Have an outside expert facilitate the process
  • Don’t get distracted by the potential cost involved
  • Invest the time and get the best possible outcome
  • Identify the vision, be clear, start at the beginning
  • Provide coaching for Cohort members on implementing EBP to change organizational conversation
  • Change the thinking of our Boards to not only get their buy-in but to get their commitment and to get them to lead the process
  • Have cohort members commit 2-4 staff and board members to be consistent attenders at institute
  • Capitalize on the expertise already in the group and what’s already existing
  • Build culture of patience in donors and stakeholders that change takes time and sustaining funding
  • Start with leadership changing its vision and commitment to EBP, which leads to community changing its vision
  • Build on strengths we have; display our talents to one another—co-learning, co-sharing, building relationships
  • Use this process to get us ready to apply for big funding within 3 years
  • Provide structure to measure, have a culture of measuring, improve quality of work and quality of collaborations
  • Have made tremendous progress in a short time already

Conclusions: If we want to get to collective impact, we need to do EBP. We want EBP! Next week’s meeting will be at United Way, 8-9:30 a.m. At that meeting we will use SEI’s ideas for creating an institute on EBP as a starting point and identify other pieces we may want to add and/or figure out how they fit in. Join us on June 27 to have your say in the process! For the history of these EBP meetings and links to all of the resources, go to http://nevadafund.org/category/evaluating-impact/. For an idea of how an institute works and what results can be achieved, look at these materials: http://nevadafund.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Capacity-Bulding-Academy-Presentation-Slides_2-up.pdf See you next week! Tracy