What:
We bring together Bay area community leaders to reflect, discover and share. We organize our leaders into cohorts. These cohorts are based on neighborhood, role in the nonprofit sector, and/or substantive area.
With each cohort, taking into account the specific needs of the participants, we offer a range of program activities and supports. Facilitated conversations are at the core of our Kscope offerings.
We also serve as a sounding board and advisor to community leaders and projects.
We bring together Bay area community leaders to reflect, discover and share. We organize our leaders into cohorts. These cohorts are based on neighborhood, role in the nonprofit sector, and/or substantive area.
With each cohort, taking into account the specific needs of the participants, we offer a range of program activities and supports. Facilitated conversations are at the core of our Kscope offerings.
We also serve as a sounding board and advisor to community leaders and projects.
Who:
Each cohort includes a different configuration of leaders. A cohort might include some combination of:
In short, we believe in the power of convening all kinds of leaders from CEOs of major nonprofits to emerging philanthropists to informal community leaders who hold no official position or title. We recognize the corner shopkeeper might serve as critical a role in the community as the NGO President.
Each cohort includes a different configuration of leaders. A cohort might include some combination of:
- Identified Community Leaders + Unusual Suspects: We bring together identified community leaders and unusual suspects (individuals often overlooked as leaders).
- Full-time Community Leaders + Lay Leaders: We bring together leaders who are devoting their life's work to community causes and lay leaders (such as nonprofit board members, volunteers, professionals offering pro bono services, and funders).
- Inside the System + Working from the Outside: We convene community leaders working inside the system (such as local government leaders and law enforcement officers) and leaders working from the outside (such as advocates, community organizers, religious leaders, local business and corporate leaders).
- Experienced Leaders + Emerging Leaders: We include proven leaders with a track-record of success and emerging leaders about to embark on important community work.
In short, we believe in the power of convening all kinds of leaders from CEOs of major nonprofits to emerging philanthropists to informal community leaders who hold no official position or title. We recognize the corner shopkeeper might serve as critical a role in the community as the NGO President.
Why:
- We believe community leaders need a comfortable space for reflection, discovery and sharing.
- We believe there is tremendous value in leaders, who might not otherwise come into contact with one another, getting to know one another in a meaningful way. We provide a forum for leaders to get to know the person behind the title.
- We believe that leaders benefit by having a place where they can share their triumphs as well as their struggles, fears and deeper motivations for their community work. We offer a space where leaders are not pitching, being pitched to, or attempting to close a deal.
- We believe there is intrinsic value in leaders engaging in meaningful conversations. We are unlike traditional task forces, advocacy groups or coalitions, which usually work towards a specific policy goal, law reform, program collaboration, increased budget allocation, or other actionable plan.
- We believe that by talking with others, leaders develop a better understanding of where their own community work and efforts fall into a larger context.
- We believe that there are difficult dynamics in the nonprofit world (just as there are in any field) which often are not confronted directly. We want to give leaders the opportunity to explore the dilemmas they face, as well as their own motivations for their community work.
- We intend to create programming which sparks leaders’ creativity and inspires them, enabling them to be more effective and thereby increasing their impact in the community.
What We're Not:
Our focus is not on teaching community leaders about best practices. We do not provide strategic consulting or offer leadership development courses, which we feel other organizations are already doing.
Our focus is not on teaching community leaders about best practices. We do not provide strategic consulting or offer leadership development courses, which we feel other organizations are already doing.