The Third Path Design Thinking Session.
Overview.
Marion Design Co. organized a design thinking session, hosted by the Community Foundation of Grant County and Meagan Mathias, to aid nonprofits in collaboration for proposals for the Third Path grant program. We used design thinking to lead groups of nonprofits in selecting and solidifying their projects, empowering them to think innovatively and collaboratively.
Background.
The Community Foundation of Grant County, an organization that connects local nonprofits with funding, noticed that the COVID-19 Pandemic had a negative financial impact on the nonprofit community. They also noticed that while many nonprofits exist in the Grant County region, many of these nonprofits were fighting the same battles without collaboration, and thereby limiting their potential impact. In response, they established the Third Path grant program to give nonprofits a long-lasting boost while also maximizing impact. To ensure this desired long-term and maximized solution, the Community Foundation designed the grant to be awarded to a group of 3-4 nonprofits that could combine their strengths and passions to address one need. Working together in this way, the nonprofits would be able to stretch the grant money further and ensure more permanent solutions. The Community Foundation reached out to Marion Design Co. to facilitate a design thinking session for the potential applicants. Attendance at the session was mandatory for all applicants to ensure their eligibility for the grant.
Objectives.
We needed to create a session that would translate the Community Foundation’s needs into a tangible experience. We developed the design thinking session to accomplish the following objectives:
Identify Strengths
Specifically name individual and shared strengths to encourage groups toward taking ownership of their gifts.
Cultivate Collaboration
Spark conversation that will cultivate meaningful, long-term collaboration between
nonprofit organizations.
Inspire Innovation
Inspire and generate innovative ideas that will address complex problems in fresh, effective ways.
Celebrate Risk
Celebrate the potential for discovery found in taking creative risks.
Process.
As we began to design the session, we asked ourselves the following questions:
How do we prompt groups to think creatively?
How do we empower groups to form collaborative habits?
How can we remind groups to celebrate their strengths and their potential?
As we worked towards the design thinking session, we selected and organized a set of activities that would create meaningful conversation and align with the nonprofits’ goals. These activities would synthesize ideas in a manageable and accessible way while also pointing the nonprofits toward plausible and positive impact.
Using graphic design, we created branded materials to match the brand the Community Foundation had previously developed for the Third Path Grant.
At one point in the process, we learned that we needed to switch from planning an in-person and online hybrid session to planning a completely virtual design thinking session. Because of this switch, we had to design the session to ensure engagement over an extended period without the potential fatigue and distraction of being online.
Throughout the entire process, we frequently met with Meagan Mathias, the Community Investment Manager, to ensure that the session accurately met the needs of the Community Foundation’s grant program. After we developed a session prototype, we did a soft launch with a team from the Community Foundation. We led them through the session as a test-run and to continue to improve the session.
Results.
The Third Path Design Thinking Session occurred on January 15, 2021. We had over forty virtual attendees from sixteen nonprofits, divided between six different groups. The four-hour session led participants to discover assets and values both as an individual and as a team.
The session featured the following eight activities:
Individual Wall Dump: Identify strengths and passions of a
single organization.Whole-Team Wall Dump: Determine shared strengths and passions within a group of organizations.
Six Word Memoirs: Consolidate strengths and passions into a six word statement.
Asset Map: Identify available assets.
Round Robin: Solidify problem being addressed.
Lotus Map: Explore the problem in context.
Feasibility Map: Weigh the effort versus the impact of
potential solutions.Storytelling Canvas: Reflect on the session to create a narrative for the application.
The experience was uniform for each team while also catering to the uniqueness of each group. We did this by creating playlists featuring a collection of songs shared by each participant. We also designed Zoom backgrounds with colors and images that were specific for each team.
After the session, one participant shared, “We would not have had this conversation without the prompt of the design thinking session.” Another said, “This was the first time our two organizations were in a room together and we really bonded.”
The Third Path Design Thinking Session successfully equipped each group with the tools they needed to transform their idea into a succinct grant proposal. In the time after the session, three groups were awarded the Third Path Grant, allowing the nonprofits to begin making the ideas developed during the session a reality within our community.