What does it look like to apply the questions of Catalytic Thinking to seeking grants? Come join us on October 23rd as we do just that. You’ll be part of a real planning session - a case study in real time. You’ll learn, add your thoughts to the mix, and gain experience with Catalytic Thinking in ACTION!
NOTE: The conversation will be live-streamed at this post.
Scroll to the bottom of this page on the day of the event to watch.
Time and Date:
Wednesday, October 23rd
1pm-3pm Pacific time / 2pm-4pm Mountain time / 3pm-5pm Central time / 4pm-6pm Eastern time
Here’s the details:
As Creating the Future steps into the grants arena for the first time (yes, after all these years, this is the first time), we know we will mostly be complying with a formula crafted by those who hold the power in this relationship. Fill in their form, write the narrative they require, answer their questions.
That power dynamic is a big part of why we haven’t sought grants in all our years of being. Working within a paradigm that actually harms groups’ ability to create change goes directly counter to our values. To date, we have therefore chosen a different route. That path has required that we be agile and lean, focusing intently on those activities that will net the most impact. We have learned a ton in that process.
That is all changing now. In these final few years of Creating the Future’s work, we will need significant resources to finish up the work of our mission in a timely fashion. We will therefore have little choice but to step into the grants arena to get that work done. (If you’re new to this being our final years, head here for the reasoning behind our 10-year mission).
While we may not have control over the questions and requirements funders will ask of us, there are many aspects of the process that we DO have control over. We have control over…
- Which funders we connect with and how we approach them
- How we frame the project we are stepping into and the results that project will bring to the world
- How we frame the “case for support”
Those are the aspects of the process we will begin to address during our Funding Strategy Meeting on October 23rd. And as with all our strategy and planning conversations, you are invited to be part of that conversation.
This will not be a theoretical discussion. We will be using Creating the Future’s own grant search as a case study you can be part of. As you walk through this process with us, you will be helping us define these very real steps in our own journey. For us, this will be the real thing. For you, it will be a way to learn by doing, without the pressure of applying it to your own work – truly a living case study in real time.
The project:
In the final phase of Creating the Future’s work, we have a huge mountain to climb. We will be building a library filled with everything we have learned about the power of Catalytic Thinking, and then sharing that information broadly with the world. You can see more about the approach we’re taking at this link.
The library will include…
- Theory (What is the framework? How does it work?)
- Case studies (What does the framework look like regarding planning? Or your board’s work? Or communications strategy? Or…?)
- Pedagogy (What we’ve learned about different ways you can teach Catalytic Thinking in your own environment)
It will take a ton of work to build that library, and that will require funding.
In this first phase, we will focus on building out the base of the library, the foundational pieces from which all the rest of the resources will flow. Those foundational pieces will document the results of all the demonstration projects we have done over the years.
(Yes, like other orgs, we have been so busy doing the work, we have not had the time to document what we’ve learned in that work. Unlike other orgs, though, a big part of our mission is to share all we’ve learned from those efforts. That is why this library is so important to us!)
To create those initial resource documents from which all the other pieces will flow, we know we will need to contract with interviewers and writers. We will need to compensate subject matter experts whose experience with these projects will be the source of the data we gather and report on. These and other pieces are the “stuff” of the project. Listing those line items and determining a budget is the easy part, the formulaic part.
The questions we will be addressing with Catalytic Thinking are the opposite of formulaic – questions about the meat of the project, the why and the what and the how.
- How to describe the project? What exactly are we seeking funding for? What results are we “selling” that funders may want to “buy”?
- Are we thinking too narrowly about our approach to the project? Or too broadly? Are there different aspects to this effort, that we haven’t considered?
- What kind of funders do we want to connect with? As we step into funder research, what are we seeking in a relationship with a funder?
- How to describe the work we’ve done so far, and make the case that this project is a worthy investment? What is the story we need to tell?
We will apply Catalytic Thinking to all of this and then some.
If you are interested in grants – whether you are a professional grant-writer or you are thinking about grants for the very first time – you are invited to be part of this conversation.
3 Ways to participate:
Like all our strategy discussions, this conversation will be open for you to be part of – not just to watch, but to add your wisdom and your questions to the actual conversation. As a member of our community and as someone who will be affected by whatever happens as a result of this effort, your voice is the most important voice to be included in this effort.
That aligns directly with the first question of Catalytic Thinking: Who will be affected by whatever actions we take? And what would it take for them to lead the direction we take?
You can see more about that at this link.
The meeting will take place online via Zoom. You can watch it right here at this post. If the video does not appear precisely on time, please be patient – we are probably just running a few minutes late.
There are 3 ways you can participate.
1) If you are already familiar with and committed to Creating the Future’s work, and you would like to be actively involved in the meeting discussion side-by-side at our online “meeting table,” let us know, and we will send you an invitation to join us online. Read more here about what it means to participate in that way. (Please note that these seats are limited, to ensure everyone’s voice can be heard. If you are not able to be in the room with us, no worries – there are still two other ways to share your insights with us!)
2) If you want to participate but are unable to be in the meeting itself (perhaps you’re at work, or maybe at home with kids running around, etc.), or if you don’t feel familiar enough with our work to be in the meeting, you can watch the live-stream in real time and tweet your questions and ideas to us via the hashtag #CreatingTheFuture. We read those tweets aloud during the meeting, just as if you were there. This is a great first step for those who are not as familiar with our work, but want to get more involved.
(Please note: We will only see your tweets if you use the #CreatingTheFuture hashtag. During the meeting, we will not look at blog comments here at this post, and will only be following the #CreatingTheFuture hashtag in the Twitter stream.)
3) Lastly, if you want to simply watch, or you want to think about what you’re hearing and respond later – or if you will be watching the recording after the meeting happens – please add your thoughts into the commentshere at this post. We will include that thinking into the mix as we continue the conversation and start taking action.
We look forward to your being part of the discussion!
On the day of the event, the live-stream will appear right here.