Organizational Leadership & Governance

For practitioners to be able to lead within philanthropy, their institutions must as well. Institutions, and those who lead and influence them, should understand and develop an organizational leadership stance and governance structure rooted in social justice that empowers leaders at all levels of the institution.

This includes, but is not limited to:

  • Creating space for multidirectional management (managing up, down, and across)
  • Critical analysis of power dynamics and inclusiveness within institutional traditions and policies
  • Implementing systems thinking to change historical and current internal inequities

Learning more about organizational frameworks and systems, including trust-based grantmaking, equitable evaluation, and social justice philanthropy frameworks can give you tools to advocate for shifts in organizational leadership in your institution. You can also help to advance this work by developing your personal leadership style through Self-Advocacy, thinking through ways that your organization can use funding to create change with Resource Mobilization, or taking a look at the other ILF cornerstones here.

EPIP Organizational Leadership & Governance Blog Posts

Leadership Re/Imagined

Posted on January 29, 2021

What is leadership? A year ago, when I accepted the role as EPIP’s Executive Director, I sat with this question for quite some time, reflecting on the models of leadership that I had seen held up as exemplary.

Leaders are fearless. 

Leaders are confident. 

Leaders are focused, stoic, unflappable, and always poised.

Those models didn’t resonate with me, though. And as the year went on, and the events of 2020 came crashing down upon us like unrelenting waves upon the shore, I realized why. Any model of leadership which removes the fullness of human emotions for the sake of performing perfection was more isolating than it was liberating. I wanted more than that for myself, more than that for EPIP, and more than that for the work ahead of us. 

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The Three Elements of Continuous Learning: Priorities, Plans, and Culture

Posted on August 12, 2015

This essay originally appeared on the Collective Impact Forum blog on Tuesday, August 11, 2015 and was authored by Efrain Gutierrez, Senior Consultant at FSG and an EPIP Seattle Chapter Leader.

In the past few months, I have heard many practitioners in the social sector discussing how continuous learning is integral for successful collective impact (CI) efforts. Although its importance is understood, practitioners say they are struggling with how to implement continuous learning processes effectively.

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Organizational Leadership & Governance Events

EPIP has events that focus on organizational leadership & governance throughout the year, both through our webinars and national programming and through our chapter work. Any upcoming events will be listed below, but past events include Internal Culture, External Change: Lessons from Two Foundations’ Culture-Change Journeys (EPIP Minnesota) and Get a Beer and Undo Nonprofit Power Dynamics Day (EPIP Bay Area).

No upcoming events.

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