global picture. "They felt like they could be involved in cool projects, have an impact on where their money was being spent," says Wang, "I think that's great and I want to be able to increase positive things they're getting out of being on the committee."
Jessie Wild Sneller reflected that there has not been much formalized training for committee members in general, but that is starting to shift:
- Anyone relatively involved can be on committee, but just because you edit Wikipedia doesn't mean you know how to look at a grant proposal. We need capacity-building tools for the committee. We're now in a place where there's higher retention rates on committees, and more staff capacity to support committees, so we're getting into more proactive coaching.
Capacity-building for committee members may also result in members moving from one committee to another. "We have started seeing a sort of pipeline of grant committee members from one program to another" as volunteers gain experience with the consensus-making process and other elements of their role, says Katy Love, Senior Program Officer of the Funds Dissemination Committee. For instance, the FDC currently includes a number of members who were previously on the GAC. Love also sees opportunity to increase the inter-committee and cross-committee "crosspollinating" learning, however she says the staff are conscious of committee members' limited volunteer hours.
Another way WMF provides support is through ongoing learning conversations, including online learning modules, blog posts, and more. They host video conference learning series about once a month, with live broadcasts that can be watched on Youtube, and a question and answer period at the end. These are on topics that are specifically requested by organizations or individuals in WMF networks, within the grantmaking ecosystem. Topics range from the "How to get beyond the simple data," to a how-to on "SMART goals," to conversations around partnerships with education institutions. Some learning conversations target individuals, some are targeted towards organizations, and many towards synthesis of information - WMF sharing back to committees or grantees about trends they're seeing, ways they can know they're being effective in their work. Out of these trainings, WMF is currently also creating a program design toolkit.
Says Siko Bouterse, "You have a vision or a wacky idea, let's figure out how to facilitate it, turn it into action." The |deaLab Mixer[1] at Wikimania, the annual global movement event, was another capacity-building exercise, bringing together a great mix of people for in-person activities that got them out of their comfort zones, meeting new people, and making new connections. Bouterse loved helping to "matchmake" potential project collaborators at the mixer, saying "It was an in-person analogy of what we're trying to do online."
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