Skip to main content
logo

2016 National Conference

May 2–4, 2016

Twin Cities, MN

A02: Trust Building: Transparency, Triumphs and Tribulations

Monday, May 2, 2016 at 2:15 PM–3:30 PM CDT
Greenway Ballroom B/C (Second Floor)
Track

Strengthening Relationships

Session Designer

Rajiv Khanna, International Development Exchange (IDEX)

Session Description

Do you want to build trust across the complex power dynamics created by money? Do you want to ensure that your grantees and constituents have a seat at the table, instead of being just on the menu? Join The Whitman Institute, a funder, and IDEX, its grantee partner and an intermediary that funds global grassroots groups, for a session exploring how funders bring the voices of grantees and community members into direction-setting and decision-making. You will learn what it takes to form partnerships based on respect, mutuality and equity. Speakers will share how they prioritized authentic relationships, aligned their organizational values to this approach and made strategic pivots in their programming to demonstrate trustworthiness. Through a survey activity, you will locate where trust shows up in, or is absent from, your work and identify concrete steps you can take to integrate relationship building as a measure of impact. You will come away with practical tools and tips that can be immediately integrated into your approach, portfolio and programs to help you and your grantees learn and succeed together.

Session Designers

Rajiv Khanna, International Development Exchange (IDEX)

Speakers

[photo]
Rajiv Khanna, International Development Exchange (IDEX)
Biography

Rajiv is engaged in strategy development, assisting program staff in linking impact evaluation with ongoing program planning and improvement, and positioning IDEX as a learning resource for grassroots development. He plays a leading role in organizing the IDEX Academy and developing learning resources aimed at engaging and educating a new generation of culturally competent international development professionals. He is also building alliances with the Indian Diaspora community and is the staff liaison for IDEX’s Young Professionals Group. He is currently serving as the Coordinator of the San Francisco Local Engagement Group of Exponent Philanthropy and is active with the Harmony Initiative Working Group of the Bay Area Justice Funders Network. A professionally trained historian of international relations with expertise in Modern Europe, South Asia, and the Cold War, Rajiv has designed and taught college-level courses at universities across the U.S. He also led the Indian Diaspora Oral History Project, a community-centered project focused on South Asian immigrants in Silicon Valley, as part of the Silicon Valley Immigration Center at San Jose State University.

[photo]
Pia Infante, The Whitman Institute
Biography

Pia brings rich and diverse experience serving the public sector to the role of Co-Executive Director. Having taught high school in the South Bronx, directed media & economic justice campaigns in New York City and Boston, and trained hundreds of youth development practitioners in California, Pia applied her entrepreneurial spirit to starting a business in 2000. For over a decade, Pia’s organizational consulting and coaching helped further equity-driven efforts nationwide with clients such as University of California Students Association, San Francisco Foundation, Grassroots Institute for Fundraising Training, and Building Movement Project. More recently, Pia was the Director of Organizational Partnerships for Rockwood Leadership Institute where she directed a collaborative capacity building initiative for nationally recognized progressive movement leaders. Pia is the Board Chair of the Center for Media Justice and Lead Faculty for the IDEX Academy. She holds a M.A. in Education from the New School for Social Research and a B.A. in Rhetoric from the University of California at Berkeley. Follow her @PiaVision.

Primary Points Of Contact

Rajiv, Khanna

Session Materials

Loading…