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The Funders Network on Population, Reproductive Health and Rights
The Funders
Network on Population, Reproductive Health and
Rights knows there are many challenges
involved in foundations
collaborating
together. Each foundation is
unique. They lack a strong history of
collaborating, and may have some resistance to
collaborating. This can make it difficult
to find a commonality through which they can
come together. Given these challenges,
Denise Shannon, Executive Director of the
Funders Network, hired MAG to facilitate their
working groups to develop their statements of
purpose and action plans.
“MAG has a great reputation for having very capable people on staff. [Our MAG consultant] knew the philanthropic field and reproductive justice field well, making her a great candidate to work with us,” says Shannon. “She was very quick to understand what needed to happen and how to get there without me having to connect all the dots for her. While I needed to tell her some particulars about the group and how we were approaching this collaboration, she already knew what the challenges were and what would be useful to help us grapple with them.”
Shannon saw that MAG came in with realistic expectations about what they could do. “Group work is often slow and working with different people’s aims, styles, and capabilities can be very frustrating,” notes Shannon. “MAG understood there was considerable groundwork that needed to be put in place before collaboration could occur.”
Through MAG’s facilitation, one of the Funder Network’s groups, the Women of Color Working Group, developed a strong understanding of their purpose and a very high level of trust in each other because they knew they wanted to do it together and where they wanted to go. “It got off to such a great start with MAG’s help and have really thrived and achieved a lot,” says Shannon.
Knowing that it’s hard to find facilitators that are really good working with their groups of mostly very smart, capable, and no-nonsense foundation program officers and program directors, Shannon appreciated MAG’s deft touch to balance competing styles in the facilitation. “MAG really helped us think through the process by knowing when it was appropriate to be more directive and to take more of a backseat in the meetings.”
“In all our work with MAG, we’ve gotten the most out of our times together and made significant progress on strategizing together and coming to a common understanding, which is key to us as a network,” recalls Shannon.
“MAG has a great reputation for having very capable people on staff. [Our MAG consultant] knew the philanthropic field and reproductive justice field well, making her a great candidate to work with us,” says Shannon. “She was very quick to understand what needed to happen and how to get there without me having to connect all the dots for her. While I needed to tell her some particulars about the group and how we were approaching this collaboration, she already knew what the challenges were and what would be useful to help us grapple with them.”
Shannon saw that MAG came in with realistic expectations about what they could do. “Group work is often slow and working with different people’s aims, styles, and capabilities can be very frustrating,” notes Shannon. “MAG understood there was considerable groundwork that needed to be put in place before collaboration could occur.”
Through MAG’s facilitation, one of the Funder Network’s groups, the Women of Color Working Group, developed a strong understanding of their purpose and a very high level of trust in each other because they knew they wanted to do it together and where they wanted to go. “It got off to such a great start with MAG’s help and have really thrived and achieved a lot,” says Shannon.
Knowing that it’s hard to find facilitators that are really good working with their groups of mostly very smart, capable, and no-nonsense foundation program officers and program directors, Shannon appreciated MAG’s deft touch to balance competing styles in the facilitation. “MAG really helped us think through the process by knowing when it was appropriate to be more directive and to take more of a backseat in the meetings.”
“In all our work with MAG, we’ve gotten the most out of our times together and made significant progress on strategizing together and coming to a common understanding, which is key to us as a network,” recalls Shannon.