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Virtual Workshop: Leveraging Creative Tensions: Funder Edition
October 12, 2023 @ 1:00 pm – 4:30 pm
Pacific US: October 12, 2023 |10:00 am – 1:30 pm
Eastern US: October 12, 2023 |1:00 pm – 4:30 pm
Join us for a free 45-minute information session to determine if this workshop is a good fit for your team: August 30, 2023, 1:00-1:45 pm EDT (click here for Zoom link)
Support community-led change or be a strategic philanthropist? Fund programs or systemic change? Focus on short-term wins or long-term systemic change? Philanthropic organizations today face a range of tensions that can be tough to navigate. This workshop will help you turn tensions like these into sources of deep understanding and lasting innovation.
In this hands-on workshop, you will experience and learn methods for identifying, mapping, and leveraging the benefits of seemingly opposing values, and transform conflict and polarization into real alignment and equitable collaboration. By providing a practical framework and tools for addressing the underlying fears, values, and aspirations at play in any situation, this approach lays a foundation for success in any social change initiative.
While CoCreative has delivered training on leveraging creative tensions to system leaders around the world, this is the first version of this workshop that’s designed specifically for funders. We created this workshop to help you navigate the unique tensions faced as donors, trustees, or program staff members in your work to foster positive change.
“CoCreative provided an amazing experience on leveraging creative tensions for our team here at WFF. It was an engaging and informative session that will significantly advance our work as critical thinkers and strategic learners.”
– Matthew Carr, Strategy, Learning and Evaluation Director, Walton Family Foundation
This workshop will support you to:
- Identify common tensions that can threaten trust and equity in funder-grantee relationships
- Reframe those tensions to create shared understanding of the value of divergent perspectives
- Create integrated approaches to leveraging the tensions over time for better results and deeper trust, alignment, and engagement
You will leave this workshop with increased effectiveness and skill in:
- Seeing the underlying values and fears that are driving various stakeholders’ motivations and behaviors
- Mapping these value dynamics to reveal the hidden interdependence in opposing views
- Understanding the subordinated values behind the foundation’s dominant cultural values, including those values that are reflective of dominant cultural biases, and begin to explore how these values biases may be undermining effectiveness;
- Foster deeper collaboration at the level of values, resulting in more robust analysis and resilient solutions
Format: The session will take place via Zoom and will be highly participatory, including small group work and co-creation of “polarity maps,” and will include time for reflection, integration, and planning. Our learning approach includes stories and examples of how funders are leveraging these tensions now, hands-on learning exercises, and role-playing scenarios.
We highly recommended team-based participation to maximize learning and integration.
Best suited for: Individuals and teams who actively engaged in funding social change work, especially initiatives that involve diverse stakeholders
Session inputs: None required
Registration cost: $325 USD per person. Registration includes digital copies of all course materials and resources.
Course length: 3.5 hours
Trainers: Luzette Jaimes, Heather Equinoss, Russ Gaskin