New Commonwealth Fund

NCF Capacity Building

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.

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

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