In 2022 Fenomenal Funds launched the Collaboration Lab—a curated process to facilitate meaningful collaborations among women’s funds members in the Prospera network. Designed by the Fenomenal Funds Advisory Committee, the Collaboration Lab supports women’s funds to harness their collective power, wisdom, and creativity. What happens when a funder asks you to focus on your vision rather than their limits? This question fuels our work and shapes every step of the process.
We use quilting as a metaphor for the process. The diversity of fabrics and patterns represent the diversity of people coming together to create solutions; the stitches represent the bonds formed through the collaboration; each piece is as valuable as the next, each thread holding the collective vision together.
The Collaboration Lab is built on the understanding that collaboration takes time, trust, and resources. It has three main phases: Discovery, Define, and Refine.
Women's funds connect with one another to explore & select a topic of focus.
What issues do women’s funds want to explore? What practice do they want to develop? What challenge do they want to solve? What is possible if they did it, not alone, but with a group of sister funds?
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The group defines the goal, process, and roadmap for their collaboration.
Where are you going? How are you going to get there? How will you know that you have arrived? What do you need to guide your journey?
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The women’s funds consider reflections from the Advisory Committee to refine their collaboration plans as they prepare for the implementation.
What does it look like to put this plan into practice? Have you thought about translation? You might want to connect to this sister fund, which has done work on this topic for many years. How will you balance individual needs and collective interests?
Learn more
Women's funds connect with one another to explore & select a topic of focus.
What issues do women’s funds want to explore? What practice do they want to develop? What challenge do they want to solve? What is possible if they did it, not alone, but with a group of sister funds?
Learn more
The group defines the goal, process, and roadmap for their collaboration.
Where are you going? How are you going to get there? How will you know that you have arrived? What do you need to guide your journey?
Learn more
The women’s funds consider reflections from the Advisory Committee to refine their collaboration plans as they prepare for the implementation.
What does it look like to put this plan into practice? Have you thought about translation? You might want to connect to this sister fund, which has done work on this topic for many years. How will you balance individual needs and collective interests?
Learn more
These are the processes and mechanisms that supported the implementation of the Collaboration Lab process.
The success of the Collaboration Lab was possible because of the care and thought put into purpose, people, and process.
The diversity of women’s funds called for a clear and intentional approach to facilitating inclusivity and accessibility.
Participatory grantmaking has become an increasingly popular approach but Fenomenal Funds put its own twist when designing the Collaboration Lab.
We embedded learning at every step of the Collaboration Lab process, weaving documentation, reflection, and feedback loops throughout.
Here we reflect on the power of collaboration and the value of developing a shared vision for solving the challenges faced by women’s funds.
Profiles of the 15 women’s funds collaboration groups formed under five thematic areas: collective care, organization and leadership, systems and practices, financial resources, and shifting narratives.
The synthesis of learning and insights on what it takes to co-create feminist collaboration, the expected results as well as the surprising outcomes.
