Several factors including COVID-19, new participatory research findings, and new or renewed acknowledgement of racial injustice led the Greater Washington Workforce Development Collaborative to make the brave but risky decision to pause regular grantmaking and operations in 2022.
The collaborative paused operations to purposefully reflect on:
Beginning in fall 2022, The Intersect began to facilitate and co-create a planning process with staff to support the Collaborative in determining both a revised direction and whether the model of a funding collaborative is the best vehicle to implement that revised direction.
We grounded our process in the perspectives of community members, nonprofit partners, grantees of the collaborative and stakeholders as experts in the economic, labor, and workforce development issues affecting the region and its people.
We began by reviewing background materials, including:
We leveraged this information to design a semi-structured qualitative interview process.
We developed multiple semi-structured interview instruments and interview guides. In total we conducted 60-minute interviews with 15 stakeholder groups, which included current grantee partners and non-partners as well as members of the community from the government and non-government sectors, and conducted interviews with 6 Collaborative Steering Committee members.
We also held information gathering meetings with other national funder collaborative tables and leaders in philanthropy.
The Intersect’s discovery process surfaced that the Greater Washington Workforce Development Collaborative needed to evolve.
Alongside staff, we facilitated a co-created process to develop a revised framework for the funder collaborative focused on an economic justice orientation, a revised model of impact for grantmaking, as well as a new name, mission, vision, and value statements to guide the collaborative. We supported staff in developing an initial framework for a community-led process which will establish the north star of the collaborative and future funding priorities.
Learn more about the evolved Collaborative – Reimagine here.
My introduction to Melissa and The Intersect occurred during a very sensitive and critical point in my funding collaborative’s evolution. As staff of the Collaborative, Melissa provided me with such amazing support, guidance, and thought partnership which helped me make the case to pivot the table at a time that was rightly demanding more of philanthropy. I will be forever grateful for my time with her and now consider her a friend, colleague, and co-instigator in the fight for economic justice.”
Dawnn Leary, Chief Program Officer
The Greater Washington Community Foundation