Giving Grantee-Partners the Reins

Creating a cohort-designed learning community

Monday, October 22, 2:00pm – 3:15pm

Organized by Jason Blackwell, program associate, The James Irvine Foundation; and Stephanie Brown, program officer, The James Irving Foundation.

Moderated by Leslie Payne, senior program officer, The James Irvine Foundation. Presented by Ming Ng, vice president of Community Engagement, The Music Center; Robert H. Martin, senior consultant, Socius Group; Toby Leavitt, executive director, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival; and Karen Ann Daniels, associate director of Arts Engagement, The Old Globe.

How can a cohort of arts organizations create a self-governed coalition centered on collaborative learning, exploratory regranting, and forging an arts engagement movement? And where does a foundation fit into this mix, besides providing financial resources, stepping back, and letting the arts organizations take the reins? As The James Irvine Foundation transitions away from the arts, the foundation set out to answer these and other questions about how to transition as well as possible. In this session, the panelists will deconstruct each step of the process and take an in-depth look at the creation of a cohort-designed and self-governed learning community. From the formation of the “working group” – self-selected individuals from across the cohort charged with the task of designing this community – to choosing the fiscal agent, to negotiating the grant agreement, this case study highlights the potential of shared leadership and the practicality of compromise and trade-offs. Following the panel, session attendees will break into small groups, each lead by a panelist, to explore three distinct decision points that occurred throughout the creation process.