The Bridgespan Group

03/15/2023

🎉 The podcast returns March 23! In the second season, our host, Darren Isom, will speak with eight brilliant leaders of color about how their identities have shaped their journeys in the social sector.

Before then, enjoy these highlights from the first season and subscribe: https://bspan.org/dreaming

01/01/2023

Happy New Year! Best wishes to you and yours for a fulfilling 2023.

We are deeply grateful to our clients, funders, peers, and colleagues for their passion and commitment this past year, and look forward to working together for a better world in 2023.

12/27/2022

☕ Looking back at 2022, do you have any stand-out experiences? Any goals you're trying to live into for 2023?

⁣📸 Earlier this year, Bailey at Bridgespan Boston shared this photo from a Women in Tech conference she attended with her IS team colleagues. ⠀
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Aside from being a great training opportunity, it was also a chance for several of our team members to meet in person for the first time!

09/19/2022

📊 To get right, must use methods that engage, respect, and benefit the communities with whom they work.

There is an ongoing shift in the social sector, a growing recognition that need space to tailor less to funders and more to the needs of their communities.

Communities and constituents know what they need better than anyone.

In our new report, we provide practical advice for nonprofits interested in incorporating into their measurement approaches to improve their and learning.

📄 Read the report:

How nonprofits can incorporate equity into their measurement, evaluation, and learning.

08/25/2022

“Those of us who are running towards liberation, towards a vision of a different social and economic order, we are one team, running a relay race together – handing the baton back and forth to each other all the time. It’s in our collective that we find our strength and our purpose – it’s in our collective that the race is won.”
– Urvashi Vaid

Last week Bridgespan hosted an inaugural Equitable Philanthropy gathering on Martha's Vineyard.

Bridgespan partner Darren Isom shared in his reflections:

"I got to host some of my favorite folks in philanthropy for a beautiful, healing, and hope-filled conversation on the 'adjacent possible' and the future of equitable . It was easily a career highlight, a wonderful reminder that BIPOC brilliance and beauty abound and that although the fight ahead is a real one, we’re in excellent hands — we were all made for this moment."

We're so grateful to everyone who made it to the Vineyard and thankful for the healing, hope, and community there fostered. Here's to the work ahead.

07/22/2022

When we embarked on the Pay-What-It-Takes initiative, we were curious to dig deeper into and ' perspectives on what adequate financial support means.

Two years later, we've found that funders and have strikingly different views, strongly suggesting the need to improve communication and trust-building between them.

Read more in India Development Review : https://idronline.org/article/philanthropy-csr/how-nonprofits-can-pitch-their-true-cost-needs-to-funders/

The Pay-What-It-Takes India Initiative is a collaboration between The Bridgespan Group and ATE Chandra Foundation, Children's Investment Fund Foundation, EdelGive Foundation, and the Ford Foundation.

Nonprofits and funders don't always align on the importance of funding organisational development. Understanding funder motivations can help bridge this gap.

07/21/2022

In the latest episode of host Darren Isom's Dreaming in Color , meet Nate Wong - new Bridgespan Partner and former Chief and Social Innovation Officer of the Beeck Center, an experiential hub to incubate emergent ideas in the space.

Listen to Nate’s episode here: https://bspan.org/3OnrjjZ

Darren and Nate talk about Nate’s cultural heritage, how his background as a cook helped to shape his current vision of the world, why unlearning is necessary in cultural healing processes and how he acknowledges this in his coaching work.

Subscribe to listen in as Darren and Nate reimagine models of coexistence and find keys for an - driven system: http://bspan.org/dreaming

07/15/2022

This Thursday, we have a new episode of the Dreaming in Color for you! Subscribe here: http://bspan.org/dreaming

In Episode 5–Winning the Battle for America's Imagination–host Darren Isom talks with Ashindi Maxton, a Co-founder and former Executive Director of the Donors of Color Network.

Join in as Darren speaks with Ashindi on bringing and confidence to her work, leaning into healing and collective efforts, and demanding accountability and action.

Listen to the episode with Ashindi here: https://bspan.org/3Py5qQ5

07/07/2022

Episodes 3 & 4 of Darren Isom's podcast Dreaming in Color are out now! Subscribe and listen here: http://bspan.org/dreaming

The most recent episodes feature guests Carmen Rojas, PhD, President and Chief Executive Officer at the Marguerite Casey Foundation and Raymond Foxworth, PhD, Vice President at First Nations Development Institute & Visiting Scholar at The University of New Mexico - UNM.

These candid conversations—covering a wide range of topics including philanthropy, indigenous land rights, and innovation—are not to be missed. We'd love to hear your thoughts, please let us know what you think 🗨