Council on Foundations Presents Organizational “Redesign”
A letter from Vikki Spruill, president and CEO, Council on Foundations:
A few minutes ago I shared a message with Council members regarding our redesign. Since I first announced this redesign in December, I have had the opportunity to visit and talk with many of you and share more details about this ongoing transformation. I firmly believe that my efforts to reposition the Council as a network hub will prove successful only if the Council has strong partnerships with funder networks and affinity groups serving our field.
In the future, the Council will no longer attempt to be all things to all people. Instead, we will seek out partners where we can either lead or support the leadership efforts of others. I see all of you as crucial allies in this work. The Council is positioned to lead in certain areas such as public policy and legal and regulatory affairs. However, as a network hub we will also develop new connections for our members and colleagues, and we likely will no longer seek to provide expertise in many of the areas you represent and serve. Instead, we will act as a platform that connects more leaders to your doorstep and promotes the important work that you do.
I commit to keep an open line of communication with you and hope that you will not hesitate to reach out to me with any questions about these changes.
Warmly,
Vikki
Dear Colleague,
Since I first announced the Council’s new direction in December, I have received a lot of positive feedback about our vision. Our goal is to create an organization that acts as a hub designed to build meaningful partnerships between our staff and each of you, and fosters more opportunities for you to partner with each other. All of your feedback has allowed us to further define our redesign and identify new and innovative ways to deliver the greatest value to our members.
This has been a soul-searching experience, informed in large part by conversations with colleagues like you. We’ve had to ask ourselves tough questions about why the Council exists, how we can have the most impact, and how we can get where we want to go. We realized that we must develop stronger, deeper relationships with all of you so we can better understand your passions and needs, and provide you with the leadership, opportunities, and services to help your organization thrive. Together, we can partner to advance the common good. We will also continue to provide expert legal information, smart public policy and advocacy efforts, engaging conferences, and core professional development.
This reimagined Council—what I have been calling Council 2.0—will be structured differently so we can truly be a hub that connects you with the right people and organizations. Member stewardship will be core to everything the Council undertakes on your behalf. To do this effectively, you’re going to see a lot more of us. We will have full-time staff living in different parts of the country to work more closely with each of you and ensure that our entire organization better understands your role and priorities. Through deeper relationships with you, these Council team members will have ground-level knowledge about key leaders and issues, increasing our ability to develop more connections for you that lead to increased impact.
Let’s talk specifics: Say you’re a foundation developing a new initiative for neighborhood safety by providing safe places for children to play. Because the Council will have team members located on the ground around the country who are tapped into current and emerging ideas, the regional staff person working with you can share your work with Council colleagues and link you to other members focused on the same issues. Using the Council’s national and global reach, as well as our partnerships with regional associations, funder networks, noted experts, and affinity groups, we will be able to connect you with others that have successfully implemented similar programs and can share their knowledge and experience.
A great example comes from our board chair, Kevin Murphy, who runs the Berks County Community Foundation in Reading, Penn. His foundation has developed and implemented a range of innovative strategies to strengthen local public libraries in Reading. When the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation contacted the Council looking for additional foundations to collaborate on their Libraries Initiative, we were able to connect them with Kevin and other foundation leaders. We were able to make this happen because Council staff knew about the library work of the Berks County Community Foundation and other member foundations. We couldn’t have fostered that connection by surfing the foundations’ websites; we had strong relationships and knew our members.
I view us all as partners in this work. As we seek to develop more and deeper relationships with other networks, we plan to rely on you, our members, to share your own networks. The Council will be a place to aggregate those networks for the benefit of the entire field and the common good.
I want to reiterate that this new direction reflects of a lot of listening to all of you. We heard how you think the Council can help advance your work, and we know we can’t fulfill the goals of Council 2.0 without your guidance and support. We discovered all of the things you like about the Council and want to maintain—our legal resources, public policy and advocacy, conferences, and professional development—and will integrate them into this new model. We are making thoughtful and deliberate changes that will help the Council become a place for you to collaborate, exchange ideas, and discover how we can all work together to advance the common good.
As we move forward with this new direction, I will continue to keep you informed of our progress and changes. I am confident you will see the fruits of all this soul searching very soon!