6-6+Draft+Who+this+Guide+is+for+and+How+it’s+Organized

=Who this guide is for and how it’s organized= Funders enter into this conversation for different and, often, multiple reasons. They want to:
 * connect people, ideas and groups working on the issues their foundation cares about
 * increase the impact of their support for groups of people and organizations working toward common goals (e.g. coalitions, alliances, movements)
 * assess what’s working in their efforts to increase network impact and share their learning
 * develop a mindset and stance toward leadership that helps them do all of the above

This guide is for grantmakers with any and all of these interests. It’s for those who are just beginning exploration and experimentation and it’s for those who are further along and wanting to step back to reflect on their practice.

Regardless of your entry point—or points—and regardless of where you’re at in your learning journey, we hope you come away with:
 * A network lens to apply to your work,
 * Language for talking about and understanding network impact,
 * New opportunities for harnessing network potential, and
 * A better understanding of work you may already be doing to catalyze social networks for social change, whether intentional or accidental.

The behaviors and grantmaking practices outlined in this Guide can augment your existing work and skills (like community organizing), but they’re not a replacement for this work and know-how. The need for fundamentals, like assessing a strategy’s worth and effectively pitching it your board aren’t going away. Think of the Guide as offering as a new lens that can help bring into focus the ecosystems and social webs that you already operate within and see new opportunities for impact.

There’s a lot of information in here. We don’t expect that readers will settle into a comfortable chair, put their feet up and read Catalyzing Social Networks for Social Change from start to finish—though we certainly encourage it! We expect that readers will dip in and out, grabbing principles and practices that are most relevant and needed at the time. To this end, we tried to organize the information so you can easily access what you need.

While most of the content can be read in small chunks, we urge you strongly to take the time to read the introduction which outlines the core assumptions on which these practical nuggets are based.

The map below will help you find the content that’s most relevant to your interests.



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