B3: Creating Communities of Practice to Accelerate Learning
Session description
Communities of practice can be powerful tools for managing knowledge and accelerating learning, replication and scaling. Because these communities are intentional, voluntary and unbound by geography, they can cross-pollinate ideas and spark improvements outside the scope of participants’ existing resource networks. Grantmakers can play a powerful role in bringing together and fostering these communities of practice and can transform their own grantmaking approach by becoming a learning partner within a community. But doing this work effectively requires skill, time, sensitivity and commitment. Using your own experiences as a backdrop, learn strategies and tools for creating, managing and improving communities of practice, and explore instances where they have led to improved results.
Participant learning goals
• Learn when, for whom, and for what kinds of change efforts a CoP might be an effective learning strategy
• Explore approaches for building and supporting an effective CoP
• Consider technology options for CoPs
• Explore critical CoP success factors
• Learn the short- and long-term value of CoPs to individuals, organizations and larger social change efforts.
Participants will go through a CoP planning process for their own work, leaving with a preliminary framework on which to build when they return to their foundations.
Intended learning level
Adoption — strategies and tools for applying concepts and changing practices in your work
Speakers
![[photo]](https://8ca84662c5b8f0cff50d-4baaaf97d63fd7b01243e1b1c57f0cc1.ssl.cf1.rackcdn.com/40/profile_196fd89fa9d8e35ef971f5f93c806c5f.png "Kat Daniel, Green for All")
Kat Daniel, Green for All
Web site
Speaker Biography
Kat Daniel runs Green For All’s Communities of Practice, a network of thousands of innovators, practitioners and policy makers across the country pioneering the creation of America’s new clean and inclusive economy. The Communities of Practice programs link practitioners, lift up best practices and leverage the community’s voice to achieve far-reaching impact. Prior to Green For All, Daniel worked with ICF International helping governments and non-profit organizations to design and implement economic and community development strategies. From there, she joined New Foundry Ventures, a start up nonprofit organization, managing the design and creation of scalable models of social enterprise.
![[photo]](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/052b0cb6b6145dd601ead3c8a7357af8.png?d=https://proposalspace.com/images/no_photo.png&r=PG&s=50 "Horacio Trujillo, Innovations for Scaling Impact")
Horacio Trujillo, Innovations for Scaling Impact
Web site
Speaker Biography
Horacio Trujillo is senior steward and COO of Innovations for Scaling Impact, a network of expert practitioners, action researchers and thought leaders committed to developing, applying, and sharing social change innovations to scale efforts to address the world’s most pressing challenges. He coaches international organizations through the development of strategy, planning, assessment and learning practices and facilitates communities of practice. Trujillo is an assistant professor in the Department of Diplomacy and World Affairs at Occidental College, focusing on human security and development, and a fellow of the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University.
![[photo]](https://8ca84662c5b8f0cff50d-4baaaf97d63fd7b01243e1b1c57f0cc1.ssl.cf1.rackcdn.com/41/profile_34756f6b5b538a9894a7ea1a75f0df4b.png "Tanya Beer, Center for Evaluation Innovation")
Tanya Beer, Center for Evaluation Innovation
Web site
Speaker Biography
Tanya Beer is associate director for the Center for Evaluation Innovation, a nonprofit whose goal is to innovate evaluation approaches for hard-to-measure social change efforts, such as advocacy, policy and systems change. Beer has a broad range of evaluation experience in the philanthropic, nonprofit and public sectors. Prior to joining the center, she was assistant director of research, evaluation and strategic learning at The Colorado Trust, where she developed and managed trust-funded evaluations, facilitated the application of evaluation and research data to decision making, and supported knowledge sharing and learning within the foundation and with external audiences.