The Forum for Community Solutions and Neighborhood Funders Group (NFG) launched a new leadership fellowship for CEOs of progressive philanthropic institutions. The first cohort of 16 dynamic fellows will be the start of an annually growing network of visionary CEO leaders who share a belief in a model of community partnership that centers community knowledge and power building.
Learn about the first cohort of Philanthropy Forward here, and about the second cohort of Philanthropy Forward here.
Together, fellows will be strategic thought partners, with a dedicated space to organize together, boldly envisioning and advancing the transformed future of philanthropy. A future that centers and achieves equity and social justice. Philanthropy Forward fellows unlock the challenges to philanthropy realizing its fullest role as a collective financial engine for social change.
Who This is For
This Fellowship is best suited for philanthropic institutions that are already supporting racial equity and powerbuilding and who are looking to go deeper by building a strong peer group and aligning more towards equity and impact.
Benefits of Participation
Outcomes will be at the individual leadership, organizational, and philanthropic field levels. An important component will be building relationships across foundations within the 9-month program, and over successive cohorts.
Through Philanthropy Forward, Fellows will:
- Gather with other foundation CEOs in a dedicated space to explore bold possibilities together,
- Build momentum with an on-going peer learning group,
- Learn about and share systems-level analyses of both promising opportunities and challenges to advancing racial, gender, and economic equity and power building,
- Organize and experiment with strategic thought partners,
- Claim and step into individual and collective strengths as leaders for social justice,
- Better understand and access support around leadership learning edges,
- Name and understand power dynamics to build community power and advance equity,
- Deepen their ability to use and integrate action-based tools and strategies such as evaluation, racial equity practices, place-based initiatives, and strategic collaboration,
- Consciously foster and cultivate relationships and build a network of peers to support ongoing leadership and innovation in the sector.
Ultimately, the intention is to emerge with a collective identity as a financial engine for social change that centers long term impacts, community centered strategies, and advancing justice, equity and power.
Core Program Components – Participant Experience
Philanthropy Forward begins with a two and a half day residential kick-off in Aspen Colorado. After the kick-off, cohort members receive a 360-degree leadership assessment on equity and power in grantmaking. The program also includes the following components:
- Two additional 2.5 day in person meetings
- Action learning component including experiments, applied ideas, and experiential learning (e.g. power mapping)
- Optional individual coaching w/core team member
- Peer learning and peer coaching
- Creating a toolkit of practices and analysis for leading change
- Virtual time to check in on experiments
- Content and strategy webinars
- Possible projects and experiments
- Optional coaching with a faculty member
Estimated time commitment is 12 days over nine months, which includes three in person meetings plus some additional time in virtual sessions. This additional time will include activities such as peer coaching, content and strategy learning, and possible projects and experiments.
For more information, please contact Sheri Brady, Associate Director for Strategic Partnerships at the Forum for Community Solutions at: sheri.brady@aspeninstitute.org.