Donors Forum’s new "Community of Practice" on Streamlining the Grant Process kicked off January 18 with an enthusiastic group of 30 leaders from Member and Forum Partner organizations, and Associate Members from the Chicagoland area. Participants began a journey focused on finding mutual understanding and fostering working together as grantors and grantees to find solutions to streamlining the grant process in the sector.

The Community will meet multiple times throughout 2012 to learn from one another. The session on January 18 was spent getting to know the Community members and hearing from national streamlining expert Jessica Bearman about the work that has already been done by Project Streamline and others in the sector up until this point. Jessica spoke about the importance of streamlining for both grantors and grantees and where opportunities exist for change. She encouraged participants to spend 2012 “putting on their streamlining hats” as they tackle this challenging problem.

 A huge welcome to the Streamlining Community of Practice members! We’re excited to see the conversations and change your Community develops this year.

~Robin Berkson, Senior Vice President, Member Relations 

and Laura Zumdahl, Vice President, Nonprofit Services

The Brinson Foundation and the Eleanor Peterson Fund for Donor-Donee Relationships provided partial funding for the Communities of Practice.

Image: Donors Forum's Streamlining the Grant Process "Community of Practice" first meeting, January 18, 2012