Capacity Building Program

Stay tuned to the website for information about how to apply. Coming January 2010.

The Women’s Foundation of California believes that investing in the capacity of our grant partners strengthens organizations so they can be more effective in achieving their desired impacts and leveraging our program investments. Our vision for social change requires that the organizations we support are sustainable and able to adapt, survive and thrive even in uncertain times.

Our Capacity Building Program is grounded in a core set of guiding principles. One of those principles states that the Foundation recognizes there is no “one size fits all” approach to capacity building. For that reason, we have designed a comprehensive menu of services aimed at providing maximum flexibility so grant partners can access the resources that best fits their needs for organizational development.

Areas for organizational development include:

  • Strategic planning
  • Fund development
  • Financial management
  • Governance/board development
  • Coaching, staff development, leadership development
  • Human resources
  • Evaluation
  • Team building
  • Succession planning/leadership transition
  • Infrastructure support
  • Communications, technology, operations and more…..

Levels of Capacity Building Support: The Menu of Services

Our Capacity Building Program consists of several components designed to respond to the different needs and experiences of our grant partners. In order to maximize our resources, discretionary and Grow Grants are restricted to current grant partners of the Women’s Foundation who meet the criteria and have budgets of $500,000 or less.

Please contact your program officer or Senior Program Officer Maya Thornell-Sandifor (mayat@womensfoundca.org) if you have questions about what makes the most sense for your organization.

Spark Grants
These grants support activities that are more limited in scope or duration. Available year-round, discretionary grants are $5,000 or less. Examples of uses for discretionary grants may include conference attendance, contracting with a consultant for capacity-building services, resources to support meeting facilitation, coaching and infrastructure enhancements.
Grow Grants

Grow Grants support long-term, more complex capacity-building projects designed to result in deeper, more lasting organizational transformation. Examples include strategic planning, organizational restructuring, fundraising training and management and succession planning. The Foundation has compiled a short and thoroughly vetted list of preferred providers available to work with grant partners. If you prefer, you may work with a consultant of your choice. Grow Grants range from $10,000 – $20,000 per year, with the intention of multiyear support when appropriate.

We recognize that organizational change processes are often multiyear undertakings, and require more resources than we can provide. We will actively partner with you and leverage our relationships with other peer grantmakers in order to advocate for additional capacity-building support to grant partners or help match partners with other funding resources.

Technical assistance via selected intermediaries

The Foundation has identified a number of organizational intermediaries who provide excellent training for social justice organizations in the areas of need most often identified by our grant partners. We will partner with these intermediaries to provide both customized trainings and opportunities for grant partners to take advantage of existing services, trainings and other events offered by the intermediaries. These services are supported by the Foundation at no cost to grant partners. Examples of services provided include trainings on media and communications, fundraising, leadership development training and retreats, power analysis, advocacy, legal and research analysis, IT training and organizing skills.

Convenings

The Foundation will continue our efforts to provide opportunities for our grant partners to convene for the purpose of identifying allies within and across issue and geographic regions and to meet for peer learning, networking, informal assistance and resource sharing. Convenings are supported by the Foundation at little or no cost to our grant partners.

Guiding Principles of Capacity Building

We will be guided by these principles as we consider the content and the approach of the capacity-building program.

  • The Foundation recognizes that there is no “one size fits all.” We will assist grant partners in their efforts to access an array of resources and services, but we recognize the need for a partner to adapt those resources to its particular organization, its constituents and its culture.
  • We will provide technical assistance and training that address areas of greatest need and interest as identified by our grant partners and at the same time paying particular attention to trends in the sector to offer more customized support as needed.
  • The Foundation will maximize learning community opportunities for grant partners to learn from, collaborate and strategize with each other and recognize the vast talent and expertise within the community. We will do this by using cross-issue cohorts, learning circles, our statewide convening and other networking opportunities.
  • The Foundation will provide specific and ongoing opportunities to assess the effectiveness of its Capacity-Building Program and services, and keep it dynamic and relevant by regularly identifying new and emerging needs and challenges.
  • The Foundation will be careful not to overwhelm our grant partners with too much paperwork, unrealistic deadlines and expectations, and will design a straightforward process for access support, and remain sensitive to the slow pace of change.
  • All consultants will work to disseminate and transfer skills throughout the organization to the greatest extent possible, thereby strengthening the leadership and institutional capacity of that organization for the long term.
  • We will consistently seek ways to provide technical assistance that supports innovation, creativity, leadership development and long-term sustainability of the work and people. At the same time we will stay focused on the concrete objectives of this program and the need to use appropriate evidenced-based practices wherever possible.