The Learning Conference 2013

We’ve heard from you that one of the greatest benefits of GEO conferences is being able to connect with a community of like-minded colleagues. During this session you can:

o Option 1: Join a discussion with a short talk speaker.

• Tonya Allen, Skillman Foundation
• Kiff Gallagher, MusicianCorps
• Mae Hong, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors
• Udaya Patnaik, Jump Associates
• Connie Yowell, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
• Wayan Vota, Kurante

o Option 2: Form or join a small group discussion to explore a shared topic of interest. Join one of the conversations listed below or find additional options available in the Symphony Ballroom. If you want to host a discussion group, please add your name and topic to the list in the registration area by 1:00 p.m.

• Promoting Learning from a Program Perspective
Host: Paul Putman, The Cleveland Foundation
How can program staff develop, support and lead learning and evaluation endeavors? Our unique perspectives can add value to learning, and yet, we don’t necessary have learning or evaluation as primary components of our positions. Join this small group discussion among program officers to explore how we can best promote learning for reflection, knowledge building and improvement.

• Management of multiple grants getting you down?
Hosted by Victoria Dunning, Global Fund for Children
Learn how The Global Fund for Children developed its Grantee Pathways to Success
— a grants and data management system designed to streamline processes, harness
synergies, reduce burden on grantee partners and program staff, and provide
powerful data to the board. Join the conversation to hear straight talk on lessons
learned and share your trials and triumphs in grants management for better results.G

• How networked investments may be altering your organizational reality
Angela Frusciante, William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund
Increasingly, foundations are investing in networks and exploring networked learning
among grantees. At the William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund, program staff is
exploring how creating internal spaces for organizational learning can inform, mirror
and enhance the ways in which we engage in grantmaking and with external partners.
Join the conversation to share examples of organizational learning processes and
to discuss how the shift to networked investments may be changing foundation
structure from the outside in.

• Current Trends in Nonprofit Capacity Building
Hosts: Joann Ricci, Greater New Orleans Foundation and Barbara Kibbe, S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation
Over the last year, GEO has held a series of listening sessions and interviews with grantmakers and nonprofits to better understand how they view nonprofit capacity building — what’s important, what’s still challenging and what’s next. Join this small group discussion to explore findings from GEO’s capacity-building landscape review and how they might reshape your support for nonprofit capacity.

o Option 3: Meet with the colleagues you were hoping to see at the conference.

Networking