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PEAK Grantmaking

Insights on Organizational Learning

PEAK’s Insights program is primed to do deep dives into our Learn, Share, Evolve Principle throughout 2023. To set the stage for the year, we invite you to explore this roundup of articles we’ve published over the past few years on organizational learning. Here, you’ll find a sampling of the insights on organizational learning that PEAK and your sector peers have shared about how they strategically build and share knowledge. These include how to wield data as an impact storytelling tool, including nonprofits as deeply valued thought partners, and instilling learning cultures within your organization.

Transforming Philanthropy Through Emergent Learning

This foundational piece from PEAK’s Emergent Learning Playbook defines the concepts, qualities, and practices of emergent learning, and outlines how it can be operationalized throughout the sector. “[I]n order for organizations to be agile change agents, they need to capture and share what they learn so that the field as a whole can best adapt to community, economic, and societal shifts,” authors Chantias Ford, Melanie Matthews, and Shantelice White write. “This mode of thinking is also social and depends on cultivating cultures of trust that allow for safe, transparent conversation among individuals, teams, grantees, communities, and entire organizations to take place so that knowledge and the change it might inspire can be easily shared and scaled. READ MORE


Unleashing Possibilities Through Connection

Consider how you can create a stronger organizational learning culture simply by focusing on how you run meetings. “Some of the most common bad habits show up in how power is wielded, whose voices are heard and how decisions get made,” writes consultant Daniel Weinzveg. Here, he offers practices and insights that will help you to develop the interpersonal skills needed to foster a culture where everyone feels included and empowered to lead from their seat so that your work can achieve a greater impact. READ MORE


A group of Ethiopian women partake in a family planning training program via the Ethiopia Public Health Association, which Packard supports.Packard’s Personal, Ongoing “Grantsformation”

Packard Foundation Director of Grant Process Jennifer Adams shares how the organization underwent a three-year journey to reimagine its grantmaking processes to uplift and center grantee partner voices. “We must work together to understand why processes exist,” she says. “By centering grantees, using data and feedback loops, and hearing from staff that do this work, we get clarity about when to hang on to a process and when to let go.” READ MORE


How Surdna Centers Trust and Learns With Grantee Partners

Surdna Foundation has centered its nonprofit partners in its continuous learning journey over the past several years. Surdna Foundation Director of Learning and Grant Operations Jonathan Goldberg shares how implementing trust-based practices is resulting in more resilient organizations. READ MORE


Learning While Leading: Lessons from inside PEAK’s peer networks

In this roundtable conversation, Janet Camarena, Kelly Costello, Katie Kaluza, and Blanch Vance—four volunteer leaders supporting PEAK’s chapters, peer groups, and board—share how these peer networks are leveraging emergent learning practices to activate our member community of changemakers. READ MORE


Upgrade that Board Packet with the Same Data, Better Storytelling

St. Luke’s Foundation Senior Grants Manager Kristen Summers shows how you can adopt a streamlining mind-set to present data so that it resonates with your board and drives deeper discussions on your organization’s giving practices. READ MORE