Design Challenge
How might we put some fun back in FUNdraising?
Partner
Opportunity Collaboration
Project
Co-design, coaching, and facilitation for a global convening of social impact leaders.
Role
Catalytic Coaching · Facilitation
Overview
The Funding Model Jam is a game I designed for social-sector organizations to playfully imagine, explore and experiment with non-traditional ways to resource their work outside traditional grant-based systems.
Developed from over a decade of professional and lived experience working with nonprofits, startups, and foundations, the game was created in response to a persistent gap: while “funders” often urge partners to find financially sustainable models, few spaces exist for organizations to safely explore how to do that with creativity, collaboration, and fun.
The Funding Model Jam:
Creates a shared lexicon for alternative resourcing across organizations, movements, and collectives.
Challenges participants to imagine funding and value-exchange models beyond grants and investment.
Is biased toward action - encouraging play, iteration, and experimentation in a low-stakes space where there’s no failure, only learning and joy.
I typically run this Idea Forge workshop for individual clients, but most recently facilitated it for delegates at Opportunity Collaboration, where I was invited to attend as a fellow. Participants included nonprofit leaders, funders, impact investors, social entrepreneurs, and educators - each exploring how to unlock abundance in their own contexts.
If you’re interested in hosting a Funding Model Jam for your organization or team, get in touch!
Duration of Engagement
October 2023
“Our team LOVED this jam. It gave us space that was generative and allowed us to explore so many possibilities before narrowing down to models we’re excited to test.”
- Manon Vergerio, Head of Data & Advocacy, Unlock NYC
“Your session was great - awesome structure, plan, fun, and energy! Thank you! I’d love more info on the deck and would be interested in purchasing it.”
- Anne Maloney, Educator & Social Impact Consultant, Scott Center for Social Entrepreneurship