Our fellow foundations:
GHR Foundation | Enkel Foundation | Opus Foundation
We acknowledge our presence on the traditional land of the Anishinaabe and Dakota People.
Supporting Locally Driven Solutions to Catalyze Change
We partner with organizations in Indian Country and Tanzania that are working towards systemic change through holistic, evidence-based approaches in early childhood education for children ages 3-5. We help our partners improve the lives and futures of the children, families and communities they serve through knowledge sharing, program development, capacity building, advocacy, and resource development.
Our Approach
We invest in local organizations and leaders to develop culturally grounded programs and help build strategic connections to broader networks of impact. We value and invest in building strong relationships with our partners, as this facilitates shared learning and creates new opportunities to support our partners’ visions for their work. Our efforts to build strong partnerships include:
-
- Development of networks & collaborations – connecting our partners to catalyze innovation and change.
- Leadership development – strong leaders can oversee direct service delivery to ensure that more children have access to early childhood education.
- Evaluation & learning – thoughtful reflection and analysis helps partners and the foundation understand, analyze, and deepen their impact.
We recognize that our partners know best when it comes to their own communities. We follow their lead and offer our resources and connections to help move their efforts forward. This approach leads to a unique grant process where we prioritize developing strong working relationships upon which bold collaboration with ambitious goals can flourish.
Step 1: Strategy & Vision Planning
- Foundation staff work with partners to finalize a proposal and complete the application process. This includes meeting(s) with foundation staff to discuss their concepts prior to submission of full proposals. We strive to establish trusting and open patterns of communication from the start.
- Foundation board makes a funding decision on initial partnership development grant or multi-year grant.
Step 2: Letter of Inquiry
- BWF shares its Board of Directors-approved Program Strategy and publicly invites letters of inquiry and other expressions of interest from prospective partners. Alternatively, foundation staff solicit concepts from specific organizations based on particular geographies of interest.
- Foundation staff members review expressions of interest and conduct initial relationship-building conversations to identify leading partnership prospects, who are invited to submit full proposals.
Step 3: Proposal Review & Board Action
- Foundation staff work with partners to finalize a proposal and complete the application process. This includes meeting(s) with foundation staff to discuss their concepts prior to submission of full proposals. We strive to establish trusting and open patterns of communication from the start.
- Foundation board makes a funding decision on initial partnership development grant or multi-year grant.
Step 4: Partnership Building
- We listen and learn about our partners’ evolving plans, challenges, and opportunities. Our work is to support their vision, not fit them into ours.
- Initial phase of partnership includes significant relationship building, site visit(s), networking, capacity building, evaluation planning, & leadership support.
- Development of long-term plans for partnership, including formal proposal for multi-year support, defining programmatic and organizational development goals and shared definitions of success.
Step 5: Strategic Growth, Learning & Evaluation
- BWF and partner develop and evolve a shared vision of successful long-term partnership, identifying core capacity needs, networking needs, and other long-term success factors.
- Annual partner reports contribute to shared reflection and valuable learning for both partners and foundation.
- Partner participates in annual in-person or virtual gathering of BWF partners to share learning, develop networks, explore collaboration opportunities, and advance leadership development.
- BWF and partner work to communicate about partner activities and impact to raise the profile of partner and its work among donors, non-profit peers, & other influential networks.
- BWF works to amplify the voice and experience of partner, in line with BWF mission, vision, and values.
- BWF supports partner in strategic networking, institutional problem solving, and organizational development.
Step 6: Partnership Graduation & Long-term Engagement
- BWF and partner plan and implement graduation from BWF grants portfolio, prioritizing strong leadership, diversification of funding, community engagement, internal systems/operations, and sustained impact of programs, in pursuit of partner’s mission and vision.
- The foundation values the relationships it has built with long-term partners that are no longer receiving active grant support. We are committed to continuing to learn from our past partners whenever possible, while also sharing lessons and opportunities emerging from our ongoing work. We welcome updates and conversations with past partners, and seek to support their continued success in a range of ways, such as through our networks and communications that shine a light on their work.