Workshops + Advising
Advising
Philanthropy is often a heart-motivated endeavor. However, implementing philanthropic efforts requires a grounding in purpose and casemaking tied to strategy. I can help you with both aspects of charitable giving. If you share my core values of creativity, justice and learning, and are in need of a collaborative thought partner who can also turn strategy into action, then let’s work together.
Experience:
I have been a nonprofit executive director. I have been a grantmaker at a major foundation. Here’s what I’ve learned: it is very easy to be stingy. It is far harder to be generous. Strange, for a field built on the concept of charity, isn’t it?
If you’re interested in my resume, you can check out my LinkedIn. I have served as a thought leader in philanthropy in the areas of arts education, arts and culture, and policy and advocacy. Some of my impacts so far:
- Designed and led participatory grantmaking with rural artists and equity, inclusion and diversity (EID) capacity building intiatives.
- Developed and led Program’s Policy and Advocacy and Youth Strategies.
- Managed relationships with 100+ grantees, ranked in the 91st percentile for Responsiveness, and 96th percentile for Clear and Consistent Communication in grantee survey.
- Built and led funder coalitions in arts education and policy and advocacy.
- Reduced number of grantees by twenty-five percent due to strategic misalignment.
- Commissioned major research on arts education policy, arts education practice, and arts workers in California.
Advising Services
- 9One-on-one coaching or training for grantmaking staff or board members
- 9Thought partnership and strategy advising
- 9Sourcing and vetting grantees
- 9Writing grant guidelines
- 9Designing grant programs
- 9Conducting landscape analysis on a particular field and/or geographic region
Workshop
Play in a Day
In 2018, my co-creator Marc Chun and I were both working at the Hewlett Foundation – him, in the Education Program, and me in the Performing Arts Program. We had a shared love of the musical “Hamilton,” and values of creativity, justice and learning. We wanted to create a learning experience that brought those values to bear in a way that was transformative for educators and grantmakers.
We presented our Play in a Day workshop at SXSWedu, and annual conferences for MakerEd, Deeper Learning, and Grantmakers in Education. The workshop coached first-time writers through the process of writing a play focused on equity in education. Then, professional actors performed those plays in front of a broader audience. The plays were painful, honest, silly, and touching. The workshop embodied what the research shows about meaningful learning experiences: they are personal, experiential, collaborative, and creative.
Equity Storytelling Fellowship
Marc and I wanted to go deeper into the subject of equity. In 2022, we led a Storytelling Fellowship for Funders of Color at EdFunders with the organizing question, “What would philanthropy look like if funders of color could bring their full selves to their work?” Fellows participated in three virtual creative writing workshops leading up to a full-day in-person workshop. They learned about different forms of storytelling from published poets, playwrights and authors, and wrote their own stories. In the in-person workshop, they embodied those stories, stretched and deepened them, and then turned them into a solo performance piece. Everyone who participated in the fellowship performed their solo stories in front of a packed house of conference attendees. It was a powerful, deeply moving example of what can happen when funders of color are invited to bring their full selves – and those in their lineage – to their work.
Testimonials
from participants at EdFunders: Funders of Color Storytelling Fellowship: