Beyond Assessment: How Co-Impact Wove Learning into Its Strategy
At Co-Impact, rather than treating the Framework as a standalone assessment, we integrated it into our strategy refresh. Beginning with the learning team and expanding to colleagues across the foundation, we used the Framework to spark reflection and dialogue about what it means to be a learning philanthropy. These conversations informed organization-wide Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) that embed learning into how we work under our refreshed strategy.
| Clarify Strategy | Curate Evidence | Sensemake & Take Action | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current | Building | Initiating | Building |
| Aspirational | Embedding | Building | Embedding |
| Priority Action: Develop a learning plan for the foundation directly tied to our theory of change | Priority Action: Align evidence curation with decision points | Priority Action: Host strategic sensemaking that spark “double-loop learning” |
We Need To Work On Our Internal Learning Processes
Our focus as an organization is really on supporting our partners, and we realized how strong we were at learning with them. But then it dawned on us that we hadn’t applied the same practices internally, and we could become a much stronger organization if we focused internally, and tied that learning to strategic decisions.
What We Learned About Ourselves
- Our focus as an organization is really on supporting our partners, and we realized how strong we were at learning with them.
- But then it dawned on us that we hadn’t applied the same practices internally, and we could become a much stronger organization if we focused internally, and tied that learning to strategic decisions.
- We realized we need an intentional and more systematic approach to internal learning with a clear purpose and regular cadence.
When To Use This Process
We recommend using the tool alongside a strategic planning or strategy refresh process, as we did. By internalizing the framework within the learning team, we used it in “stealth mode,” weaving its concepts into key conversations without formally introducing the tool. This helped embed learning throughout our refreshed strategy, reinforce it as an organizational priority, and lay the groundwork for a later self-assessment and action-planning process involving colleagues from across the organization.
"The Framework turned our aspirations to be a learning organization into honest, practical, and energizing conversations about how we learn and improve."
The Co-Impact learning team taking the self-assessment under wintry conditions in England
Our Advice To You On Process
- Go into “stealth mode.” This means initially keeping the tool in your back pocket and showing it later when you’ve already laid the groundwork.
- Don’t use the tool in isolation. Sync up with organizational windows of opportunity, such as annual work planning and budgeting or a strategy refresh
About Co-Impact
Co-Impact brings together local changemakers and funders from around the world to make health, education, and economic systems stronger and more inclusive – creating impact that lasts. Our commitment to advancing gender equality and women’s leadership is central to this goal. By focusing on systems, our partners work at the scale of the problem – dismantling the root causes of inequality that disadvantage hundreds of millions of women, children, and marginalized communities. For more on Co-Impact, visit co-impact.org.