Get on the Balcony: How Grant-makers Can Ignite Change

Published by: Grant-makers for Effective Organisations. September 2018, US. 29 pages.

In a continually changing world with emerging challenges and opportunities, grant-makers must be prepared to tackle the most pressing issues that our communities face in authentic partnership with nonprofits. To do this, we need to be open to working in new and different ways and committed to examining our organisations to figure out how we need to show up and operate differently to enable systemic change.

But what if your organisation hasn’t acknowledged the need for change? Or, what if your organisation knows something isn’t working but hasn’t been able to pinpoint exactly what should shift? Where do you start? What can you do to be an agent of change at your organisation?

Get on the Balcony: How Grant-makers Can Ignite Change, addresses these questions. The publication features helpful approaches for jump-starting a change initiative, drawn from the reflections of GEO members who have been tasked with assessing challenges and cultivating the conditions for a productive change process. Drawing on the practices of adaptive leadership, the publication touches on how grant-makers can evaluate the need for change, create a culture that embraces evolution and experiment to identify the direction for change. The publication also includes a reflection worksheet to help you plan for change and highlights helpful resources.