How Monthly Convenings Transformed the Way in Which We Engage With Our Believers
A few years ago, we would award micro-grants to social changemakers from around the world following a fundraising course and one-on-one mentorship. That would typically be the end of the program cycle for Little Big Fund. Once in a while, a few participants would reach out with updates, and we would send our annual surveys to measure progress. However, much of our communication with the Believers (the name we call our alumni) would be limited to emails and numbers.
Last year, when COVID-19 pushed us all to go indoors, we started a monthly gathering of our Believers -- called it Little Big Convening. A Convening is a 1-hour event where we invite a subject matter expert, usually from the field of nonprofit and social entrepreneurship, to share their story, insights, and resources for our community.
During the first few Convenings, we had the awkward moment -- many of these alumni had not engaged with us on a call for many years now. However, once we got over that phase, this has become a way for us to continue updating our insights on how our community is doing. Rather than sending out an end-of-year survey to “measure” their impact, we host end-of-year celebrations, holding space for them to share how the year has been.
The Convenings have had three major impacts on our work: first, they allow us to stay closely connected with our community and the issues that they are facing. If we engaged through surveys or annual gatherings, we would get input on how they were doing at a particular time. Rather, by engaging with them on a monthly basis, we are able to see how things move throughout the year -- when does our community feel burned out? When are they most worried about finance? We can then incorporate this data into our programming and offer services at meaningful times.
Second, the Convenings allow us to create a peer-network of our community members. When Neejan from Nepal who is working on a water purification project can connect with David from Kenya who is also working on a similar topic, there is room for collaboration and exchange of resources and best practices. Through monthly meetings, we are creating these spaces for connections to happen.
Third, the Convenings allow us to tackle one of the biggest challenges that proximate leaders face: lack of connection with mentors. When you are working hard to implement projects, it can be difficult to find the right mentors but if we can organize 12-monthly convenings each month, we are providing access to 12-subject matter experts that might be a potential mentor for our community.
In 2021 year, we hosted Convenings with a spectrum of leaders: Teju Ravilochan from GatherFor, Greg Harms from Boulder Shelter, Christen Brandt from She’s The First, Alexis Taylor from the Davos Lab and more. With each of these guests, our Believers were able to gain insights on what it means to lead a nonprofit organization, the pitfalls to avoid, and tips on areas ranging from fundraising, to leadership, and team building.
If you would like to learn more about our Convening Speakers, please check out our website!
