Funders seeking to increase the impact of their grant-making programs and make progress on pressing social issues are often tempted to bring grantees (and sometimes others) together through convenings designed to share ideas and insights, advance issues of shared concern, and build deeper connections.

People collaborating with others can often conceive innovative solutions in a way they might not be able to working individually. However, it is not easy to build a meeting that spurs engagement and produces creative ideas.

Build your agenda around grantee goals. Ground agendas in clear and actionable goals that resonate with your attendees. Planners should first clearly articulate meeting goals and then take the important step of pre-interviewing attendees to gut check those goals and clarify participants’ expectations.

Use attendees’ expertise to drive engagement and collaboration. We’ve found that structured small group discussions during which a grantee shares and clarifies a specific challenge and gathers insights from the rest of the group results in a high level of engagement among attendees.

Build networking opportunities into all aspects of the agenda. Creating both structured and unstructured networking opportunities leads to more meaningful conversations at the meeting and has the potential to spur ongoing relationships once attendees return home. Meetings should start with interactive activities designed to break down the barriers between strangers—these can be as simple as two-minute “turn and talks” in which attendees introduce themselves to the person next to them and share something new.

Work to spearhead substantive meetings in partnership with major foundations around goals and grounded in attendees’ needs. It draws on creative formats and elevates attendees in addition to outside experts as contributors to the conversation and recognizes that unstructured opportunities to build collaboration are as important as structured ones. When funders go beyond grant making in this way, they can have the opportunity engineer even greater impact.

Read the full article about amplifying impact by Abby Newcomer and Lauren Marra at Arabella Advisors.