For a nonprofit, success means achieving the mission and realizing the vision. And both of those things rest upon a theory of change, which, for the Exchange, includes (1) building the leadership skills of practitioners; (2) supporting GSI implementation; and (3) making the evidentiary case, as shown in the diagram above. As we undertook strategic planning two years ago, we made a conscious decision to double-down on implementation. Why? (1) A small nonprofit cannot do everything at once – focus is essential; (2) There’s ample evidence that GSI implementation knowledge and best practices need to be better-established and shared.
And so, with the support of the Pisces, Kresge, and JPB foundations, along with Spring Point Partners, we have spent two years doubling down on implementation support, an effort I have referred to in shorthand as “allying, framing, and training.” It’s starting to bear fruit. Let me explain.
(1) ALLYING
Jalone White-Newsome of the White House Council on Environmental Quality has noted that “addressing climate change equitably requires “the integration of strategy and action across academia, industry, and government …” Each sector has “something to give and something to receive. We can fill in each other’s gaps. No one entity can do it all.” That is among the reasons that this year, the Exchange expanded its membership to embrace GSI practitioners from the private, nonprofit, educational, and state and federal government sectors. We need to ally so that all perspectives are reflected in our efforts to frame the field’s best practices and to innovate solutions to its yet unanswered questions. Since formally announcing this move in April, we’ve added over a dozen new members and have new applications pending. If you’re not at our table yet, you can learn more about joining us here.
(2) FRAMING
In their 2022 book on social impact networks, Connect-Innovate-Scale-Up, Peter Plastrik and colleagues underscore the importance of developing a framework of practice for a new field like GSI, outlining its boundaries, key players, established practices, and innovations. And that is precisely the effort being undertaken by the Exchange with the help of Greenprint Partners, which has completed drafts of the first two of nine chapters of a new Framework of GSI Practice. As we note in our September newsletter, we’re actively seeking public comment on the drafts, which are linked therein.
(3) TRAINING
Framing is a precursor to training, wherein accumulated knowledge can be assimilated and shared more broadly. In furtherance of our goal of getting better at knowledge dissemination, we hired Dr. Veronica Hotton, an experienced educator, last year. Veronica has, among other things, worked to develop two new courses, Intro to GSI and GSI and Equity, which will be available to Exchange members free of charge and to others for a modest fee. The GSI Intro course will survey several key areas in the interdisciplinary and cross-sector work of GSI: equity, climate resilience, planning, funding, regulations, design, maintenance, monitoring and performance. The GSI and Equity Course is organized around the Exchange’s seven Equity Goals and four identified types of equity (i.e., identity, power, process, spatial). The course pays particular attention to three of the Equity Goals: Internal Readiness (1), Centering Community (2), and Benefits-Driven Project Development (3) while providing opportunities to engage with the other four goals. We’re actively seeking participants for pilot sessions of both courses, which start this month and are being offered free of charge. You can learn more and sign up here.
None of this work has been easy and these outcomes would not have been possible without bold leadership and big commitments of time and energy from our members, especially our member leaders. Thank you, Sarah Anderson (City and County of Denver, CO), Stephanie Chiorean (Philadelphia Water Dept.), Kate England (City of Boston, MA), Heidi Horlacher (City of Vancouver, BC), Sally Hoyt (City of Raleigh, NC), Torrey Lindbo (City of Gresham, OR), Claire Maulhardt (Capital Region Water, Harrisburg, PA), Irene Ogata (City of Tucson, AR), Beatrice Ohene-Okae (City of Washington, DC), Lisa Sasso (Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District), Andy Szatko (City of Omaha, NE), and Matt Wilson (City of Toronto, ON)!