This story was written as a collaboration between CFLeads and Innovia Foundation.
CFLeads is excited to continue offering a free economic mobility webinar series designed to engage community foundations across the nation. This series encourages awareness of resources from CFLeads and partners, shares actionable steps for community foundations of any size, and features compelling stories and presentations from community foundation leaders on their experience using these resources in the field. These webinars are free, open to staff at all levels, and shared on CFLeads’ YouTube channel afterwards, making the resources readily available.
On Thursday, October 3, 2024, CFLeads hosted an hour-long webinar on Community Leadership 101 with Innovia Foundation. The live webinar reach over 130 individuals, representing rural and urban areas from 28 states.
What is Community Leadership?
Community foundations are uniquely positioned to serve as community partners by pursuing the community’s greatest opportunities and addressing the most critical challenges, inclusively uniting people, institutions and resources from throughout the community, and producing significant, widely shared and lasting results. Community leadership is not separate from grantmaking, but a holistic approach to serving the community that extends into other impactful strategies, empowering community foundations to take a multifaceted approach to their local issues. CFLeads has a number of tools to help community foundations embrace this role, starting with the five core competencies.
CFLeads’ Senior Vice President of Strategy, Impact, and Operations, Meghan Cummings, stated that those adding community leadership into their strategic plan will begin focusing on impact by engaging in collaborative and sustainable approaches with intent not only on grantmaking, but service as a leader or supportive partner.
Community foundations can view a snapshot of the resources CFLeads has available using this brief guide.
Getting Started
Community foundations across the country are working as community leaders in unique ways that fit the needs of their community. Shelly O’Quinn, Chief Executive Officer and Molly Sanchez, Chief Community Investment Officer with Innovia Foundation, presented actionable steps to get started with community leadership.
Start internally with staff and board:
When implementing community leadership practices, it’s critical to do the internal work first. Innovia started by introducing staff and board members to the Framework for Community Leadership by a Community Foundation and identified the building blocks that were missing within the organization. Shelly and Molly shared their journey of laying the groundwork by rewriting job descriptions to ensure everyone on the team plays a role in community leadership, by getting the board “on board” with help from trainers, and shifting mindset to focus on impact instead of focusing on fund development as the primary measure of success.
Rather than focusing solely on short-term grants, Innovia began to pursue transformative, long-term initiatives based on locally identified priorities. By leading with impact, growth in assets naturally followed.
Identify the resources you have:
Each community foundation starts at a different place with unique resources. As Shelly and Molly stated, your resources may be dollars, or the relationships you have within the community. Relationships are assets that can open other doors for additional funders and grow support for initiatives.
Show up where community is present:
After identifying your resources, start showing up and keep showing up. Consistency is key for growing trust and being knowledgeable about what is happening in your community. Begin by attending community and chamber meetings. Then, use data to set the table for community conversations and invite resident input to ground truth with data. There are many data resources available including resources curated by CFLeads’ strategic partners.
- Urban Institute’s Mobility Metrics Framework
- Results for America’s Economic Mobility Catalog
- Opportunity Insight’s Opportunity Atlas
Focus on impact:
Innovia’s shift from transactional to transformational impact was a process. What started as a simple marketing campaign quickly expanded to a complete rebrand and new mission and vision for the organization when they asked their community stakeholders, “who do you want your community foundation to be 5, 10 and 20 years into the future?” Donors, nonprofits, volunteers and community partners shaped the role Innovia played in community by making it clear that they wanted their community foundation to show up and invest in community identified priorities and partners.
In response to what they heard, Innovia designed a strategic framework “Transforming our Community Together.” Guiding all aspects of Innovia’s work, the framework is grounded in a commitment to leadership and embracing innovative approaches to build vibrant and sustainable communities across their 20-county region.
Innovia emphasized core values of innovation, inclusion and collaboration and were intentional in bringing new voices to the table. Most significantly, they established leadership councils with more than 150 volunteers serving as local advisors to the foundation.
Since adopting a community leadership mindset, Innovia has doubled in asset size, underscoring the belief that when you lead with impact, asset growth naturally follows.
Branding is more than colors and names. It’s understanding who you are in the community, and even more importantly, who your community wants you to be. To do this, you can’t be afraid to ask.
Innovia’s community leadership journey has been just that – a journey. It takes time to build relationships and trust, to learn about community priorities and to understand where the Foundation should partner versus lead. From disaster recovery efforts, to purchasing a historic flour mill for economic revitalization and launching a promise scholarship that will transform the lives of youth across the region, Innovia continues to find new and innovative ways to partner with communities and ensure every person thrives.
Connect and continue learning together.
Peer learning is a powerful tool for advancing work in the field of philanthropy. Shelly shared that Innovia Foundation’s community leadership journey benefitted from her participation in CFLeads’ Executive Leadership Institute, and several Innovia staff have participated in ELI cohorts as well. Through access to CEOs from across the nation, structured time for problem solving, and support from colleagues, peer communities are a strategic next step for any community foundation wishing to expand their practices. Innovia Foundation is currently participating in the advanced cohort of CFLeads’ Economic Mobility Action Network.
Make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to learn more about CFLeads’ upcoming webinars and program offerings. We look forward to welcoming you into these discussions with community foundations and partners working to advance economic mobility in their communities.
