Building Bridges between Philanthropy, Nonprofits, & Communities
My first foray from the grant-seeking world into the grant-making world was rough. It was a sink or swim experience and after drowning, then swimming, then getting ejected from the pool (laid off), I’m thankful for the learning opportunity. I now ground my consulting approach in an empathy and practice born from experience.
Sink or Swim
I joined an almost entirely new team at NewSchools. We were all former school-based personnel who had a deep, resounding commitment to NewSchools’ mission and vision. I don’t want to speak for my wonderful former colleagues, so from here on out, I’ll use first person to tell my story.
As a former teacher and researcher, I was familiar with learning new institutional languages. In fact, it was expected. But when I joined NewSchools Venture Fund, it was like I was learning a new language without a dictionary or a translator. I felt like multilingual student who was put into a new teacher’s class mid-way through the year. And I felt incredibly stupid and annoying along the way.
Every conversation had a corporate sheen that made conversations feel like a holographic image — where one angle looks like a face and another angle looks like something else entirely. I stopped asking questions because it felt like I was halting important conversations mid-step by asking about the wrong image. From “breaking down silos,” “capacity building,” “bridge building,” “alignment,” “leverage,” “impact,” “strategic pivot,” “scale,” “wordsmith,” and more, I felt how much I was annoying people by asking them to define even the most basic terms. I remember feeling profoundly stupid when I asked how we were defining and measuring “innovation” on our funding application. I probably came off as critical and nit-picky, but for all you teachers out there, I just really wanted a rubric to soothe the constant anxiety that I was doing it “wrong.”
I struggled to translate my knowledge and my background using a language that my organization preferred. And I misrepresented myself a lot. And as I talked to and read grant applications from hundreds of brilliant entrepreneurs and organization leaders across the country, I started to see parallels.
Building Bridges to Stay Dry
I addressed those parallels when I joined Food to Power. I had another language to learn, one far more technical and related to the complex work of food recovery, distribution, environmental stewardship, and waste management. I learned what a “circular economy” was and how “food recovery” was a critical, common sense way to mitigate hunger. But I realized that similarly, the nuance of our work was lost in translation with our philanthropic partners. The door opened both ways and by not translating our work into words familiar to our funders, donors, and community members, we were losing the critical supporters we needed to achieve our vision of a hunger-free, nourished Colorado Springs.
So I built the bridge between Food to Power and our partners. I changed our story to be easily accessible and translatable to different audiences. And it worked. I raised our annual revenue by 350%, But more importantly we started building cross-sector partnerships and expanding our footprint in the community and across the county. I helped my team open the door, build the bridge, and then we watched so many people walk across to join us.
Teaching Bridge Building
I created Rocky Mountain Impact to build similar bridges between philanthropy, nonprofits, and the communities they serve. Each has their own language they use to describe themselves, their reality, and their work. And so much is lost in translation. That’s where I come in. With experience in philanthropy, academia, development, and community-based nonprofits, I have a foot in each door and I’m holding them open so we can build bridges and help people pass through. Because it can take an entire village, city, state, or nation to enact social change.
So let’s break down the communication barriers that keep philanthropic and nonprofit organizations siloed. We need to work together to maximize our impact and realize the social change we envision for our communities. And our communities need a way to share their feedback with the institutions serving them!
Together, we can turn everyone onto the same radio channel. Then we can start speaking, understanding, appreciating, and most importantly, helping each other bridge the gaps that separate us.
Warmly,
Dani
