Template for Knowledge Capture
Name of Meeting: Open Source Philanthropy
Date/Time/Place: March 26, 2014/Joan Palevsky Center for the Future of Los Angeles
General Knowledge Capture (KC) Tips:
 Focus on capturing:
o Action Items
o Participant questions/Comments
 When possible capture names of those asking questions or making comments so that we
can give them credit in the report or go back to them for clarification if needed
o Major ideas or recurring themes and conversation topics
o Hot topics or subjects around which participants have strong opinions
o Feedback for SCG
o Best practices/Success stories
 Do not try to capture everything. KC is not stenography

Because it is not always possible to capture thoughts in complete sentences, go back through your notes
after each session to clarify ideas, and put notes in complete sentences
Attendees: (When appropriate, list the attendees)

Best Practices
o Data:
 Share data; don’t replicate
 Discuss who gets to frame the data
 Define what success means
 Don’t wait until all the data is collected to begin collaborating
 Understand the purpose before publishing data (comment from audience)
 Make sure the shared data is “good” data (comment from audience)
o Context and Culture
 Understand the history of the community where you are funding
 Partner with nonprofits that trust you because you’re asking them to make big
changes
o Relationships
 Build somewhat unorthodox alliances
 Utilize your many networks within the community and relationships with other
funders to understand the fundamental nature of the issue you are confronting
 Ensure the you have the right people in the right positions
o Leverage
 Monitor surroundings for opportunities
 Maintain momentum with small wins
o Create a shared vision
o Pay attention to the sustainability of the process of which you are undertaking
o Plan, but don’t let planning curdle the vision
o Make sure you are ready to get started and make changes
o Accept ambiguity and change when collaborating
o Let collaborations happen organically built out of trust; don’t force the relationship
o
Funders are most effective when they solicit feedback from their grantees

Key Takeaways
o What serves as a solution in one place does not necessarily work in another location
o A lot of collaboration work takes place in a grey area—foundations must be comfortable
working with ambiguity
o In order to solve “wicked” problems, multiple theories of change must be utilized—one
isn’t enough to tackle complex problems such as poverty or violence
o “Wicked” problems require dynamic policy theories and porous boundaries (i.e. fluidity)
o Council on Foundations has GIS mapping tool to inform other funders which foundations
are funding certain program areas across the country
o Consider who cares enough about the issue outside of the philanthropic sector to
support the cause
o Organic collaboration process: start with knowledge sharing (aggregate and searchable),
and then move further toward coordinating, co-investing, etc.
o It’s important to utilize the benefits of technology, but it’s not the answer to the
problem
o Funders need to be transparent and open with information, especially to those affected
by the problem
o As a funder, consider if you are willing to listen, especially to those affected by the
problem

Major Challenges
o Funders have limited flexibility compared to nonprofits due to factors such as donor
intent
o The philanthropic sector’s inability to speak with a single, clear voice (comment from
audience based on experience in DC)
o Should one organization take the lead? Who out of the collaborative will make sure
things move forward?
 Comment from audience—it seems counterintuitive that there is a leader in a
collaboration
 Response—consider the structure prior to starting; ask the question if there
needs to be a boss; address it
o Is a new system necessary so that individual data can “talk to each other”? (question
from audience)
 Second comment—simply putting information on your website is not sharing
data; a more complex strategy is necessary

Major Solutions
o Create a narrative to communicate the work of philanthropy
o Use communication vehicles in order to be more transparent
o Be willing to work with ambiguity
o Be open to building unlikely alliances
o Allow collaborations to form organically from trust
o Utilize networks within the community and relationships with funders to understand the
complexity and contextual history of the wicked issue within a specific community

Action Items for Participants
o At a minimum, share knowledge and information
o Support a sharing infrastructure and/or provide funding for
o Continue the conversation
o Potential starting points for collaborating:
 Open data
 Shared metrics
 Systematic communities of learning
Any Action Items/Next Steps for SCG:
 Scan the horizon and announce upcoming opportunities for funders to come together on certain
issues
 Assist in facilitating future conversations by providing space and a forum
 Consider offering a technology platform to assist in sharing information