Climate Change Adaptation Workshop for Funders

Locations

For the Chicago Workshop, April 4 - 6, 2011 - click here to register »

For the Bainbridge Island Workshop, April 19 - 21, 2011 - click here to register »

Deadline

The deadline for registration is Friday, March 18. This will allow for administration and analysis of a pre-workshop survey of attendees.

Information

Workshop Goal: Provide analysis and training to help grantmakers achieve success in the face of climate change

Length: 1.5 days

Size: 10 to 30 participants per location

Background: Environmental foundations aim to make the world a better place. Unfortunately, climate change can be a barrier to our success. The places we work and the topics we work on are all vulnerabilities to climate change in some manner. Yet, we may not have considered the potential impacts of climate change in our strategic planning, and even if we understand the possible implications of climate change for our philanthropic vision, we don’t always know what to do to make our grantmaking more resilient to climate change or how to redesign our strategies to adapt to a range of possible climate scenarios. Unfortunately failure to take these steps threatens our likelihood of success and reduces our efficacy.

EcoAdapt’s Awareness to Action (A2A) Program trains people from organizations and agencies around the world in how to develop and implement solutions to the challenges of climate change in their work. This Climate Camp for Funders will provide an opportunity for grantmakers to work together to explore the ways in which philanthropic missions and conservation strategies are vulnerable to climate change, to learn how to integrate climate variability into foundation visioning and planning, and to design new approaches to grantmaking that are more likely to be successful as our climate transforms. From here on out, being cognizant of climate change in the decisions we make is both fiscally and programmatically prudent.

Who should attend?

Any foundation staff members who design strategy, develop grants, support projects, or are active in conservation, natural resource management planning, or infrastructure and community development practices. Whether you have already considered the vulnerability of your work to climate change, have started developing responses, or believe that including climate change will take you off course from your mission, Climate Camp can help you. If you don’t think climate change is an issue that affects your work, you might want to think again.

What will they get out of it?

Over the course of the 1.5-day workshop, participants will be introduced to the basics of climate change adaptation, benefit from analysis of sample foundation approaches, and, most importantly, engage in facilitated exploration of ways to improve their own work to harvest greater success under the added pressures of climate change. The workshop will include specific examples of the types of program and strategy questions relevant to the members of the CGBD and its working groups. It will include an analysis of large-scale strategic outcomes as well as a more detailed examination of the practicalities of making specific grants. We aim to ensure that the information presented and the skills learned will be useful in the participants’ day-to-day work upon their return to the foundation office.

Sample Agenda (May be modified following survey of attendees):

Day One

Introduction to process and participants

Adaptation 101 (presentation):

• How are standard conservation, natural resource management, and infrastructureand community development practices vulnerable to climate change?
• What is an adaptation framework or philosophy?
• Examples of how this is applied to conservation, natural resource management, and infrastructure and community development activities.
• Examples of how this is applied in grantmaking and strategic outcomes

Explanation of pre-evaluation of strategic outcomes results (presentation with discussion)

• Participants will be contacted prior to Camp through a short online survey, which will ask them to provide examples of the strategic outcomes they aim to achieve in their work.
• Examples from this survey will be used to provide real-world case studies for vulnerability evaluation and adaptation assessment of strategic outcomes.
• Results will be used to develop breakout groups based on common themes.

Breakout to explore "Can you still achieve your strategic outcomes?"

• Participants will explore the vulnerabilities of their approaches and the assumptions of the outcomes themselves, given the realities of climate change, and explore how to improve the likelihood of success given these new challenges.
• A questionnaire will be provided to support the process and be taken home to use as a crib sheet post-Camp.

Cross pollination (exchange of ideas between breakouts in plenary)

• If the group is large, we will break out into more than one group for the previous discussion. This session will provide an opportunity to share key ideas that developed in each session, and allow for development of bridges between people developing similar ideas or facing similar challenges.

Day Two (Half day)

Grantmaking Criteria: Making your grants climate savvy (presentation)

• All grants are evaluated by some set of criteria (written or intuitive); these criteria should include metrics that assess vulnerability and response to climate change.
• There are some basic questions you can ask assess vulnerability. Such as, Could the grant activity be affected by climate change?, Does the approach of the work allow for integration of emerging information?, Is the work reliant on historical trends?
• There are some basic considerations you can include to enhance effectiveness in the face of climate change, and overcome many of these vulnerabilities.

Explanation of pre-evaluation of grants results (presentation with discussion)

• Participants will be contacted prior to Camp by survey to provide examples of their grantmaking (grants and criteria).
• Examples from this survey will be used to provide real-world case studies for vulnerability evaluation and adaptation assessment of grantmaking
• Results will be used to develop breakout groups based on commonalities.

Breakout to explore “Is your grantmaking climate savvy?”

• Participants will discuss their own giving and explore criteria regarding how to ensure their investments are likely to stand up in the face of climate change
• Facilitators will lead the conversations with focused questions and provide follow resources for attendees to use at home!
• Cross pollination (exchange of ideas between breakouts in plenary on criteria personalization)