Working with a large network that is transitioning from being a grantee network supported and guided by a single philanthropic foundation into a self-sustaining network without the funder, I developed a set of questions for the network members to focus on as they consider how to build their future together. The first two are about the necessary conditions for moving through the transition prompted by the funder’s pending exit.
- Is there a committed, connected core of network leadership that wants to “cross over”?
- Is there strategic clarity about the need for and purpose of a network ?
It seems likely to me from observing the online chatter in the network that there is a group of members who are passionate about transitioning the network and are prepared to provide some leadership for the process, even though for now they don’t have a shared framework.
Less clear to me and perhaps more difficult to do, is how to accompany passionate leadership with strategic clarity about the network’s purpose and value added within a context–an infrastructure–that has many organizations, institutions, and other networks. What is this network going to be about? How does it add value to its members? What is its collective value?
Answering these questions comes before worrying about the many other elements of network design: membership rules, governance, resources, etc.