Organisational Development Community of Practice
This community brings together philanthropic organisations who are either providing a form of organisational development (OD) and capacity-building support or are considering developing this as an explicit support to their partners. This includes various kinds of support, from complementary grants for specific capacity-building purposes; to flexible OD support, training or in-kind contributions from foundation staff; to strategic organisational development partnerships.
Vision
A vibrant peer-learning community of foundations where members learn and explore the challenges of providing OD support, and which advances and promotes OD practice in the philanthropic sector more broadly.
Areas of practice in focus
- Mainstreaming OD support as a key part of the foundation toolbox for enabling transformation
- Comparing and exploring different approaches and understandings of OD support
- Specific key areas of OD support, such as governance development; monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL); and financial capacity
- Exploration of evolving grantmaker-grantee relations
Activities
- Webinars zooming in on specific areas or themes of OD support
- An annual in-person learning event
- Knowledge products
- An online repository of relevant OD resources
How to engage
Join the Community
All Philea members can join the community free of charge, and:
- Get updates & info on community activities
- Participate in activities and events (in-person events are reserved for full Philea members)
- Contribute to the work plan for the community
- Share their knowledge and experiences, provide case studies and good practices
- Reinforce the connection with their peers
- Act as and/or suggest speakers for events, provide briefings on ad hoc topics
- In some cases, participate in Steering Committee meetings
Participation of non-Philea members is assessed on a case-by-case basis.
Criteria to join:
This community is designed for people who want to learn about OD, explore how to put it into practice, and help promote it within their own organisation and in the sector. The intention is to create a diverse peer-learning community, co-owned by all its members, that will propose topics of interest and take turns in presenting cases, challenges and lessons learned. Individual commitment and continuity are highly valued, and members are also encouraged to invite other relevant colleagues to some of the events, in an effort to further share their learning and promote OD.
Participate in community activities
Selected online activities are open to a wider public, beyond community members.
Join the Steering Committee
A group of foundations serve as its Steering Committee, contributing grants to finance the operations of the community. The Committee collaboratively shapes and implements the work plan, making sure that ambitions and resources align.
Steering Committee
More about the Community
This initiative has its roots in an informal peer-learning group set up by five foundations that provide organisational development (OD) support to their grantees.
Their exchanges were captured in a report: “Funding Organisational Development: A smart investment to multiply impact”. Based on the interest generated by the report and wishing to extend the learning opportunities with a larger group of organisations, the five foundations decided to formalise their dialogue and embed it within a European network.
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