Knowledge Management

Over the past decade, the Global Fund for Children has accumulated substantial knowledge and experience in grassroots grantmaking, creative philanthropy, innovative service programs for children and youth, and organizational capacity building. Our grantee partners also have much to share with each other and with the global development community as service providers and advocates reaching the world’s most vulnerable children and youth. GFC’s knowledge management initiative aims to gather, distill, and disseminate this knowledge among grantee partners as well as to the wider development and philanthropic communities.

GFC pursues two specific areas of knowledge: (1) creative philanthropy models for grassroots grantmaking and (2) programs for vulnerable children and youth at the community level. The first relates to GFC’s experience as an international funder working at the grassroots level—a combination that others have found challenging due to fiscal constraints such as tax deductibility (in the case of individual philanthropists), management and transactional burdens (in the case of large institutional funders), and requirements in areas such as due diligence, monitoring, and regulatory compliance.

Under the second area, GFC has amassed a large amount of knowledge and information, via its grantee partners, on technical approaches to child and youth development and protection as well as operational issues of program management, organizational capacity building, and community mobilization.

Knowledge, Learning, and Resource Access (KLARA) Network

In response to grantee partner demand, GFC is currently designing an Internet portal accessible to current and former grantee partners that will facilitate exchange among grantees and provide links to various resources, including nonprofit tool kits, technical resources, and potential funding sources.

Knowledge Exchanges

Regional Knowledge Exchange workshops provide an opportunity for our grantee partners to share experiences, discuss organizational challenges and methodologies, and learn about broader issues affecting children and communities in the region. We aim to organize a Knowledge Exchange workshop in each region every two to three years, with various follow-up activities. To date, we have held workshops for South Asia grantee partners in March 2005, for Eastern Africa grantee partners in May 2006, and for Mexico and Central America grantee partners in November 2006. Our next workshop will bring together grantee partners from Asia affected by the tsunami and from the US Gulf Coast areas affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Click below to read more about one of these workshops:
South America Knowledge Exchange, 2007
Crisis Recovery & Renewal Knowledge Exchange, 2007
Mexico and Central America Knowledge Exchange, 2006
Kenya Knowledge Exchange, 2006
South Asia Knowledge Exchange, 2005

Grantee partner tracking grants

GFC offers a $1,000 tracking grant to each of its former grantee partners every two years in return for the submission of basic information on the organization’s growth and evolution during that period. This information allows us to track the organization’s long-term trajectory and experiences and to evaluate our own record in making “good bets” on emerging organizations. Tracking grants also serve as a means of keeping grantee partners within the GFC network. In addition, tracking grants allow GFC to identify groups that have folded, offering insight into the often sensitive, unstable, and uncertain nature of community-based organizations. Click here for more information on GFC’s tracking grants.

International fellow

GFC’s commitment to learning through active engagement with its grantee partners is reflected in the creation of an international fellow position, which will bring a rising star from a social enterprise or the philanthropic community to GFC’s offices in Washington DC for extended stays. International fellows will bring an international perspective to various aspects of GFC’s work, contributing to a process of continuous reflection, learning, and improvement. Click here to read about the international fellow.

Expert resource pool

GFC is building a global resource pool of experts in philanthropy, organizational development, and child and youth issues, who will serve in an advisory capacity.

Events and networks

As a means of disseminating its experience and expertise in alternative philanthropy, organizational capacity building, and child and youth development and protection, GFC plays an active role in various networks and affinity groups and participates in numerous conferences and other events that promote learning and exchange.

Papers and publications

GFC is in the process of developing various research papers and resource guides on the most salient areas of its work.