Created by and for our members, the Principles for Peak Grantmaking is our call to action to transform the practice of philanthropy into the practice of principled grantmaking. Together, through these five learning tracks, we’ll delve into the five Principles—and show how grants management professionals can lead the way in putting each principle into practice.

Sessions in this track will cover topics like aligning values and practices, developing goals related to improving grantmaking practice, empowering grants managers to contribute to improving their organizational culture, and general professional development and career moves for grants managers. 

Tie Practices to Values sessions include:

• Pre-Con | Grants Management 101
• Post-Con | Become an Advocate for Practice Change
• Career Advancement in Philanthropy: Struggles and Lessons Learned
• How to Transform Your Change-Resistant Team
• Improve Grantmaking Practices for Small Foundations
• Managing Systems Change Through Stakeholder Engagement
• Philanthropy Re-Imagined: From Charity to Power in Historically Disenfranchised Communities
• Project Management Tools for Grants Managers
• Small Foundation Discussions
• Thoughtful Approaches: Training New Staff and Return on Organizational Impact (ROI) (Short Talk)
• Thoughtful Approaches: Training New Staff and Return on Organizational Impact (ROI)

Sessions in this track will cover all of the practical ways that grantmaking practice can shift to support values around sharing power. You’ll learn more about developing strong and trusting relationships with your grantees, streamlining your processes, using online systems that work, providing great customer service, structuring grants to be responsive to grantee needs, and using feedback to improve your practices.

Narrow the Power Gap sessions include:

• Opening Keynote | Inspiration and Courage for Movement Building in Philanthropy
• Building Grantee Financial Capacity
• Do Less Harm: How Funders Can Support Financially Resilient Organizations
• Engaging Experts: Using Different Stakeholder Groups to Drive Grantmaking Practices
• Foundations as Conveners: Advancing Your Mission with Nonprofit Coalition Building
• Investing in Change: How Funders Can Support Advocacy and Lobbying
• It Starts with the Grants Manager: Narrowing the Power Gap
• Less IS More: Grantee-Driven Applications and Reports
• Lessons from a Participatory Journey: Fund to Build Grassroots Power
• No “I” in Team: Effective Collaboration
• There’s No “I” in “Grantmaker-Grantee”: Strategies for Establishing Strong Relationships

While Narrow the Power Gap sessions will cover ideas around improving grantmaking practices that help all grantseekers and grantees, those in this track will delve into how grantmakers can go further—to naming and sharing values related to racial equity, diversity, and inclusion; removing bias from their decision-making; diversifying the voices included in decisions by sharing power, particularly with leaders and communities of color who have been sidelined by the traditional grantmaking process; as well as tracking and reporting on demographic data to examine disparities in funding profiles and how to improve overall impact.

Drive Equity sessions include:

• Keynote Lunch Panel | Building Equity for Native Communities through Collaboration
• Pre-Con | Brave DEI Conversations 2.0: Intensive Training to Be an Equity Warrior in Your Life and Work
• Can’t Change What You Can’t See
• Driving Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at a Small Foundation
• Internal Equity: How to Break the Silence to Implement Change
• Internal Equity: How to Break the Silence to Implement Change (Short Talk)
• Participation, Power, Philanthropy: Putting Nonprofits and Communities in the Driver’s Seat
• Say AND Do It: Tell and Use Your DEI Story

Sessions in this track will cover topics like maximizing your grant reporting and evaluation processes to support organization and field learning; using an equity framework to develop and implement your evaluation practices; and using the data that you have at your fingertips to assess, evaluate, and improve your relationships with grantseekers, grantees, and other stakeholders.

Learn, Share, Evolve sessions include:

• Pre-Con | Equitable Evaluation in Practice
• Corporate Grantmakers Roundtable: What Keeps You Up at Night?
• Engaging to Move the Field Forward through Collaborative Impact Tracking
• Foundation Archives and Record Retention
• Foundation Archives and Record Retention (Short Talk)
• Learning Communities: Fostering Connectivity & Collaboration to Drive Impact
• Strategic Grantmaking: How Can Evaluation Help Grantmakers Think Forward?

Sessions in this track will prompt discussions around how to approach risk differently, measure and track actual incidents that derail impact, and use that information to improve their grantmaking outcomes. Other topics in this area include sessions on process and decision-making transparency and traditional stewardship concepts: using data and technology responsibly and mapping and improving internal practices to ensure efficiency and smart use of grantmaker resources.

Steward Responsively sessions include:

• Pre-Con | Black Belt Digital Data Management
• The 2019 Consumers Guide to Grants Management Systems: Findings and Recommendations
• A New Data Infrastructure for Measuring Risk
• The Changing Dimensions of Disaster Philanthropy Through a Corporate Lens
• From Reviewer to Co-Designer: Collaborating with Applicants to Strengthen Proposals
• Pairing Due Diligence with Organization Values
• No Registration? No Problem! Taking Risks with International Grantmaking
• Our Journey in Human-Centered Grant Systems Design
• Power and Light: Enlightened Approaches for Accountable and Equitable Grantmaking
• When Disaster Strikes: Responsive, Values-Driven Grantmaking Strategies for Emergencies

Note: Schedule is subject to change. Please check back regularly.