“Capacity Building” is a phrase that gets tossed around quite a bit in the nonprofit world, but what does it really mean, and how do you know if it’s even working? 

Many capacity building models struggle with: 

• Overvaluing the expertise of experts vs. the wisdom of nonprofit leaders 
• Being one-off or transactional, rarely leading to systemic change within the whole organization
• Often supporting or upholding traditional power structures and dynamics
• Building the social capital of the nonprofit leaders across the community
• Being too expensive - think one consultant for every nonprofit and each of their problems

We must find a more scalable, more efficient way to create real learning and build real capacity for nonprofit leaders. 

Enter Capacity Building 2.0… The next normal of capacity building. 

In the second episode of our new Capacity Building 2.0 series, Tucker and Sarah are joined by Mina Liebert and Scott Marble to discuss “tent-pole” workshops and how utilizing them has the power to introduce systemic shifts within the organization more easily than the traditional one-off, transactional capacity building model.

It’s time to think beyond individual, one-off trainings as the best way to affect change within your organization. Instead, consider bringing members of the organization and board together to create a “tent-pole” workshop that enables your team to co-create organizational strategies alongside each other. As a nonprofit leader, involving team members in this way takes the burden of figuring out how to communicate learnings back to the organization off of your shoulders and drastically increases team buy-in. 

This episode’s guests:

Mina Liebert - Director of Community Impact at the Pikes Peak Community Foundation

Scott Marble - Chief Operating Officer - Colorado Springs Conservatory

Looking for ways to increase your impact in your communities and causes?
We've created a modular series of workshops focused on creating impact from the inside out. Explore details and schedule a discovery session at thriveimpact.org/insideout