There is no fee associated with Elevate. We only require that participating funders commit to sharing their cohort’s insights and broader expertise with other participating funders for collective impact.

Elevate members include many types of institutions that make grants. This includes Community Foundations, Private/Family Foundations, Public Charities, Municipal and State Governments, and more.

Elevate is focused on translating intention and ideas into application. To that end, we have a bias towards learning and action, and are less event-focused. We build networking opportunities virtually and, as our community grows, explore opportunities to bring us together more intentionally in person.

We recognize that time is a finite resource, so we have multiple ways for you to plug in. Whether you are only able to join us for quarterly Learning Sessions, connect periodically 1x1, or have the opportunity to join us for all of our monthly programming and Resilia Community activity, we have multiple options.

All participating Elevate funders receive regular reports on the capacity needs of their Resilia cohort of nonprofits, as part of regular programming. However, aggregate data insights and workshop learning will happen quarterly. These reports and recordings will also be readily available to Elevate partners who are unable to attend learning sessions.

Our data insights capabilities are ever-evolving based on the needs of Elevate funders and the field. Currently, we capture real-time Resilia tool and resource use, capacity building needs trends, outline stories of impact, challenges and opportunities. This data is shared in aggregate and can be leveraged to inform funder strategic direction, equity-focused initiatives, expansion of existing capacity building efforts, and collaborative grantmaking opportunities. Our goal is to help strengthen trust-based principles and complement funder-grantee relationships.

Elevate funders have a wide breadth of diversity and experience. From large national funders to local place-based grantmakers and government agencies, all of our partners are dedicated to sharing their expertise, ideas, and learnings. Where applicable, we can facilitate small-group conversations based on a shared challenge or curate a workshop. In the coming months, we will launch enhancements, such as micro-learning and a real-time data dashboard, to complement and strengthen your role as a grantmaker.

There is no restriction in terms of the number of staff members who can be invited. However, we recommend prioritizing staff connected to equity-driven, social justice, grassroots and/or BIPOC centered initiatives in your institution. This can also include Investment and Grant Management roles. We believe that building a culture of trust-based responsive grantmaking is everyone’s role. Typically, Elevate Funders have provided access to 3-5 members.

In the spirit of sharing as much as we can to inform the field, we will plan to share partial recordings of our quarterly learning sessions which include broad learning insights. We also hold Peer to Peer webinars that are open to the public. However, to protect the integrity and safety of space for our funder partners, Elevate is not open to funders outside of the Elevate network.

Elevate launched in 2022 and we are entering our second year now, in 2023. We’ve learned so much and have so much in store for this network. In the coming months, we’ll post key learnings and enhancements on this page.