The Leland Foundation - A Vision for the School of the Future
The Leland Foundation-a parent-led organization that provides funding for Leland High School in San Jose, CA-hired BTW to develop and facilitate a visioning retreat, bringing together parents, students, community leaders, and school district officials. Beth Brown, Vice President for Planning and Facilitation, led the retreat and employed small- and large-group facilitation processes, including scenario planning and story-telling. The retreat resulted in the adoption of a five-year vision of priorities for Leland High School. The retreat was seen as a model for other schools in San Jose, and as a result, BTW has been retained to lead similar planning retreats with two more schools this fall.
 
An article on the retreat can be accessed by clicking below:
 
http://www.almadentimes.com/052104/leland_hi.htm
 

Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation - BEST Initiative
BTW serves as the facilitator and managing support organization for the Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation's BEST Learning Community. The BEST Learning Community is comprised of 11 substance abuse treatment organizations in San Mateo County, each of which has received a grant from the Foundation to support improvements in organizational practice and operations. As part of its work with the Learning Community, BTW publishes The Best of BEST, a newsletter that documents stories about and lessons from the Learning Community. This newsletter is shared with other substance abuse treatment agencies both locally and regionally as well as other leaders in the field of substance abuse. The current issue of the newsletter includes an article by Tina Cheplick, Senior Associate at BTW informing change, on the challenges of staffing and supporting nonprofit boards.
 
The newsletter can be accessed by clicking on the link below:
 
http://www.schwabfoundation.org/index.php/articles/661
 

Marguerite Casey Foundation - Evaluating Social Change
On May 17, 2004, the Marguerite Casey Foundation (MCF) sponsored a one-day conversation among staff from 13 foundations from across the country to learn from each other about approaches to evaluating social change investments. MCF engaged BTW informing change to plan for and facilitate the meeting as well as prepare a summary document of the proceedings. As part of the planning, BTW conducted pre-meeting interviews with invited participants. BTW also prepared a background document summarizing participants' experiences with evaluation and their hopes and expectations for the May conversation.
 

Pacific Community Ventures - Investing for Change
In 1999, Pacific Community Ventures (PCV) brought together the principles of venture capital and community development to create the first community development venture capital fund in California. BTW informing change has been working with PCV since its inception to articulate and measure its "social returns." The Executive Summary of our most recent report for PCV, published in April of 2004, presents the key social outcomes within the PCV portfolio as a result of PCV's "investing for change."
 
Clink on the link below to access the summary:
 
http://www.informingchange.com/downloads/PCVExecSummary2004.pdf