Capacity Building

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About

The New Commonwealth Fund (NCF) Capacity-Building Initiative is a multi-modal learning program designed by and for BIPOC nonprofit leaders. Launched through a bold pilot in 2025, the program reimagines capacity building by centering lived experience, relational trust, and community generated wisdom. Unlike traditional approaches that emphasize deficits or assimilation into dominant nonprofit norms, NCF’s model is communal, caring, asset-based, and liberatory. Built into this relational approach is a unique set of evaluation metrics that support participants and funders with measuring progress in learning and impact of their investments respectively.

Core Experiences

Our offerings are rooted in affirmation, co-created knowledge, and adaptive support.

WEBINARS

  • Provide practical tools that leaders can apply immediately (e.g., fundraising, governance, people & culture).
  • Affirming and responsive learning spaces.
  • Flexible entry points that meet leaders where they are through live webinars that are recorded and available for future review alongside complementary tools and frameworks.

COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE

  • 3 month, intimate peer-learning cohort where leaders apply tools to real-time organizational challenges.
  • Supported by Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) as coaches and facilitators (not “fixers”) creating conditions for peer-learning.
  • Pilot participants consistently described these spaces as transformational, affirming, and deeply practical.

COMMUNITY KNOWLEDGE EVENTS

  • Convenings designed for affirmation, strategic connection, and collective problem-solving.
  • Pilot evaluation found these events to be the most transformative element, where leaders reported feeling “seen,” “witnessed,” and connected to new peers and collaborators.

CONCIERGE

  • Personal guidance to navigate offerings
  • Matchmaking between leader requests for support and vetted subject matter experts and consultants

RESOURCE LIBRARY

  • Ever-growing repository of tools, case studies, and resources
  • Sourced from both subject matter experts and from the community of leaders

ONLINE COMMUNITY

  • An online hub for the capacity building experience that allows leaders to sign up for events, access resources, and connect with others
  • Opportunities to connect asynchronously with the community of leaders via chat, profile searches, and shared materials

KNOWLEDGE BANK (available after the beta pilot)

  • Leader profiles that track leadership strengths and provide the insight to map our knowledge ecosystem
  • Data and insight on leader engagement, knowledge development, and growth

In-Person Partnership Opportunities

For our partners in Massachusetts interested in leveraging the in-person elements of the model

Individualized Learning Journey

A chance to experience the richness of the NCF learning journeys for a handful of individuals

Cost: $25,000
*Available only for the beta pilot January-June 2026

Capacity: 5 individuals from 1 organization

Duration: 6 months

Includes: 6 webinars, 4 communities of practice, 4 community events

Benefits to Grantees

  • Access to select webinars, peer learning opportunities, and curated resources
  • Practical tools to apply immediately to core nonprofit challenges
  • Affirming and responsive learning spaces
  • Flexible entry points that meet leaders where they are

Benefits to Funders

  • Accessible opportunity to support NCF’s beta pilot
  • Substantial support for selected leaders
  • Participation in the broader ecosystem of NCF leader knowledge

Cohort Learning Experience

A window into the rich and deep community-building and real-time problem-solving aspects of the model

Cost: $50,000
*Available only for the beta pilot January-June 2026

Capacity: 30 individuals from 6 organizations

Duration: 6 months

Includes: 1 community of practice, 1 community event

Benefits to Grantees
  • Community-driven learning experiences
  • Deep engagement on a specific problem of practice
  • Opportunity to connect with and learn from peers
  • Affirming and responsive learning spaces
Benefits to Funders
  • Explore the community-building potential of the NCF model
  • Begin to understand the organizational impact of the model, with multiple people from each organization participating

Build Your Own Cohort Journey

A customized journey that allows you to pick and choose, based on what’s best for your cohort

Cost: $75,000
*Available only for the beta pilot January-June 2026

Capacity: 30 individuals from 6 organizations

Duration: 6 months

Includes: Pick 3 events total, in any combination of webinar, community of practice, or community event

Benefits to Grantees
  • Customized learning experience tailored to the cohort
  • Affirming and responsive learning spaces
  • Flexible entry points that meet leaders where they are
Benefits to Funders
  • Create the learning journey that makes sense for your cohort
  • Content designed to address the needs of your grantees

Comprehensive Cohort Learning Experience

An opportunity to access the model in its entirety for a full cohort of your grantees

Cost: $250,000

Capacity: 50 individuals from 10 organizations

Duration: 12 months

Includes: 10 webinars, 8 communities of practice, 8 community events, concierge, resource library, online community and knowledge bank data

Benefits to Grantees
  • Longitudinal learning journeys, personalized to the individual
  • Intentional, ongoing community building, both online and in person
  • Topics adapted to the emerging growth goals of the cohort
  • Affirming and responsive learning spaces
  • Flexible entry points that meet leaders where they are
Benefits to Funders
  • Comprehensive portfolio insight through development profiles, revealing individual and collective growth
  • Data to support strategic grantmaking and alignment with long-term field impact
  • Differentiated impact through digital and in-person engagement that creates the connective tissue that leaders describe as “what makes the work sustainable”
  • Strategic value-add, building organizational strength and field-wide knowledge that transactional consulting does not
  • Reputation for innovation through alignment with a nationally recognized, field-leading model

Virtual Partnership Opportunities

For regional or national organizations interested in maximizing the possibilities of the online relational learning community

Virtual Learning Experience - 6 Months

A set of flexible tools for grantees in any region

Cost: $75,000

Capacity: 50 individuals from 10 organizations

Duration: 6 months

Includes: 6 webinars and resource library

Benefits to Grantees
  • Tools and frameworks on subjects that non-profit leaders have told us they are most eager for
  • Access to a rich and ever-growing set of resources built by other leaders
  • Organizational impact with the opportunity to include multiple team members
Benefits to Funders
  • Robust learning tools for your grantee portfolio, built by and for BIPOC leaders
  • Consistent learning experience across the offering, versus providing workshops from a range of independent consultants or subject matter experts

Virtual Learning Experience - 6 Months

A learning journey that builds the grantee community and provides robust impact data

Cost: $135,000

Capacity: 50 individuals from 10 organizations

Duration: 6 months

Includes: 6 webinars, 4 communities of practice, concierge, resource library, online community and knowledge bank data

Benefits to Grantees
  • Community-building through digital tools and experiences
  • Opportunities to learn with and from peers around a shared problem of practice
  • Asynchronous and facilitated connection modes 
  • Flexible entry points that meet leaders where they are
Benefits to Funders
  • Comprehensive portfolio insight through development profiles, revealing individual and collective growth
  • Data to support strategic grantmaking and alignment with long-term field impact
  • Strategic value-add, building organizational strength and field-wide knowledge that transactional consulting does not
  • Reputation for innovation through alignment with a nationally recognized, field-leading model