Working Across Differences
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Forest County, a rugged, mountainous area in northwest Pennsylvania, wrestles with intergenerational poverty, a declining population, and other issues common in rural America. Bridge Builders Community Foundations tackles these challenges alongside residents, but with only $200,000 in unrestricted…
How Funders Can Mitigate Political Violence
As a workshop partner for Building Together 2026, Over Zero has created this blog post to share additional insights. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Council.Political Violence and its ImpactYou may have felt it recently: a slight…
How 20 Chicagoans Came Together to Make $1.6 Million in Grants
Of the 20 Chicago residents deciding the grant awards, none was a grantmaker. One owned a coffee-roasting business; another a dessert and sweets company. A student intern deliberated alongside veterans of community development and organizing. A few had Ivy League degrees. One had spent time in…
Application Q and A: Community Foundations Working Across Differences Accelerator
Join us for an open office hours session to learn more about applying to and participating in the Community Foundations Working Across Differences Accelerator.Details to NoteThis session will NOT be recorded, but we will add frequently asked questions to our FAQ page.Applications for the Community…
Training - Building a Culture of Dialogue Across Differences
Join us for this half-day interactive workshop for an introduction to Resetting the Table’s celebrated approach to building a culture of productive dialogue on charged issues, even in the face of strong differences. You'll exchange your perspectives and experiences with your peers, while developing…
Council on Foundations Launches Grantmaking Program to Support Community Foundations Working Across Differences
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Council on Foundations today announced the launch of the Community Foundations Working Across Differences Accelerator, a direct investment in the community foundations working to bring people together across divides.The accelerator helps community foundations design and…
Community Foundations Working Across Differences Accelerator Definitions
Working Across DifferencesThe work to connect and collaborate across differences manifests in many ways. That work includes strategies known in the field as belonging, bridging, building common ground, and conflict transformation. These strategies inform a variety of activities and investments,…
Community Foundations Working Across Differences Accelerator Requirements
To be eligible for the Community Foundations Working Across Differences Accelerator, community foundations (as defined by Community Foundations National Standards) must be from the United States. Preference will be given to Council members, though non-members may also apply. Organizations that…
Community Foundations Working Across Differences Accelerator
As trusted civic leaders, community foundations are uniquely positioned to bring people together to drive shared progress across differences. To support these efforts, the Council has launched a new grant opportunity to help community foundations deepen and expand their impact in working across…
How Do You Foster Belonging Among 6 Million People?
The Denver Foundation aims to identify what works in an ambitious statewide initiative to build connections across differences.Before the Denver Foundation formally launched Belonging Colorado, one of the largest initiatives by a community foundation to build connections between Americans in this…
Learning Across Differences Ideas Forum - Measuring Belonging
Belonging is a basic human need associated with a range of positive outcomes, but how do you know if programs or investments are meaningfully building it? Presenters in this session will spotlight nonprofit and philanthropic leaders who are piloting early efforts to measure the hard-to-measure.…
Better Disagreement Fuels Better Decisions
Foundations exist to make hard judgment calls: what matters, what works, who and what to invest in. That judgment depends on people thinking well together. And most organizations, foundations included, have a practiced set of workarounds for the disagreement that real thinking requires: the brittle…
Pockets of Hope: Lessons from Working Across Differences
Even after nearly a century of doing good in southeastern Pennsylvania, the Lancaster County Community Foundation (LCCF) was little known in the region. Established in 1924, it had served chiefly as a white-shoe grantmaker, quietly distributing funds from bank trusts. Then, almost 20 years ago…
New Funding Opportunity: Scaling Community Foundation Impact in Working Across Differences
As trusted civic leaders, community foundations are uniquely positioned to bring people together to drive shared progress. To support this vital role as civic leaders, a new grant opportunity launching this summer will help community foundations deepen and expand their impact in working across…
Our Shared Future: Integrating Approaches to Social Change
During the Council’s recent Building Together conference, the Horizons Project was pleased to present two workshops on our Block, Bridge, Build (BBB) framework. The unseasonally warm sun we enjoyed in Seattle that first week in May was in stark contrast with the stormy skies and tumult felt around…
Bridging Differences Leadership Cohort office hours offer cohort members a space to reflect on their learnings and ask questions about program content. This year, we're excited to open these sessions to cohort alumni. These sessions are an opportunity to reconnect with the program's themes and…