C07: No Trust Falls: Planning the Retreat You Want to Attend

What comes to mind when you hear the word retreat? It probably isn’t “Sign me up!” Chances are you know firsthand what it feels like when these meetings go wrong. They waste valuable time and resources, generate frustration instead of good will and build resentment as opportunities to move strategic agendas forward are lost. Funders can do better in our roles as planners, conveners and facilitators. How well we collaborate often depends on it. In this session, speakers will illustrate how to tap the potential of retreats and other strategic meetings to yield better results for funders, partners and those we seek to help. Through the use of examples, a case study activity and small-group conversations, you will learn key steps to involve the right people, set clear priorities and goals, engage participants early, and ensure that progress during the meeting is carried forward. You will come away with a set of organizing questions and practical steps to keep your meetings relevant, right-sized and focused on desired results.

Bess Rothenberg, Ford Foundation

Biography

Bess Rothenberg leads the foundation’s office of Strategy and Learning. She works closely with all ten global offices to strengthen Ford’s capacity as a learning institution and ensure that learning and strategy are deeply embedded in all of its work. Before joining the foundation in 2016, Bess served as deputy director of research and evaluation at Wellspring Advisors. In that role, she led strategic planning for international and US-based human rights work and has facilitated dozens of retreats for staff in the past several years. Earlier, Bess was senior program officer for Africa at the International Women’s Health Coalition, and associate director of grants at the American Jewish World Service. She has also served as assistant professor of applied sociology and African studies at Clemson University, and as associate director with Columbia University’s Center for the Study of Human Rights. Bess earned a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Virginia. She was a Fulbright doctoral fellow at Humboldt University in Berlin, and earned her B.A. in sociology from Boston University.

2016 National Conference

May 2–4, 2016

Twin Cities, MN