Every person deserves a fair and just opportunity for health and wellbeing. Building that opportunity takes strong community partnerships and a willingness to learn from the people closest to the work.
At the bi3 Fund, learning is integral to practicing trust-based philanthropy. When partners share their experiences, challenges and ideas, they help us better understand the conditions that shape health in our community. Our responsibility is to consider what those insights mean for how we invest, partner and support change.
But what happens after those conversations? How do partners’ shared insights influence bi3’s work?
In this conversation, Zohar Perla, bi3’s Director of Evaluation and Learning, offers a behind-the-scenes look at how our team connects insights and puts learning into practice.
How does learning from partners connect to trust-based philanthropy?
Our partners bring expertise, relationships, and a deep understanding of their communities—all essential to this work. They help us identify where systems create barriers, what’s changing, and where new opportunities are emerging. That’s one reason we’ve replaced much of our reporting with conversations during learning sessions.
When we ask partners to share what they’re learning, we have a responsibility to learn alongside them. This means reflecting on what we hear, questioning our assumptions, and considering what we might need to do differently.
For me, that is part of the value of trust-based philanthropy: mutual accountability. We ask partners to be open to learning and adapting, and we need to bring that same openness to our own work.
What happens to the insights partners share with bi3?
We want what one team member hears to become something the whole team can learn from.
One tool that helps us is a shared learning log, a place to capture observations, questions and insights from across our work. Our approach has been informed by Emergent Learning, a framework that helps teams learn from experience and apply what they discover.
The log gives us a place to document those insights and build on one another’s thinking. Someone might recognize a connection to another partnership or notice that several organizations are raising similar concerns.
That helps us move from an individual conversation to a broader question: What might this be telling us about the conditions our partners are working within, and how might we respond?
How has that learning influenced bi3’s work?
Across several partner conversations, we heard a consistent theme: nonprofit staff were under significant strain. Two pressures stood out:
- Increased demand for services
- Challenging policy landscapes that were affecting staff wellbeing
Seeing these observations together helped us recognize a broader need. In response, bi3 provided additional flexibility and resources to grantee partners to support staff wellbeing.
One partner used this support to take their team on a short wellness retreat for the first time. Another brought in a consultant to lead several workshops and strengthen staff self-care practices.
Our shared learning also gave us a starting point as we developed a funding opportunity focused on youth mental health and wellbeing. We looked back at what partners had already helped us understand and used those insights to inform our thinking.
We brought together insights from partner learning sessions, the HEY! Cincinnati needs assessment, and other community conversations we participated in. These insights included the need for culturally competent care that reflects community experiences and is delivered by people trusted by those receiving it; data on the populations facing the greatest disparities; and the importance of connection, belonging, and community in supporting mental wellbeing.
The log also helped spark reflections about supporting grassroots nonprofits. These are examples of how capturing something in the moment can create a starting point for action later.
What are you still figuring out?
The bi3 team is still working to make this a consistent practice. Capturing insights, keeping them easy to revisit, and stepping back to consider what they mean together all take intention.
We don’t always know right away where an observation will lead. Sometimes it raises a question, connects to something we heard months later, or brings us back to the log when a new decision prompts us to ask what we already know.
We’re learning how to make the process more useful. Having a tool helps, but we still need to make time to reflect and decide what to do with what we notice.
What could other nonprofits or funders try?
Start with a simple approach your team will use. For bi3, a shared Word document has been more practical than a structured spreadsheet and makes it easier for team members to make it a regular practice. We try to update it weekly and talk it through at least once a quarter. Other options include Excel spreadsheets with prompts or a survey or form that collects responses in an Excel spreadsheet.
Whatever it looks like, create a space to collectively capture what you are hearing, then set aside time to revisit it together. A few reflection questions can help:
- What are we noticing across conversations and learning opportunities?
- What is challenging our assumptions?
- Whose perspective might be missing?
- What could we try or change in response?
Learning becomes useful when it informs a decision, prompts a new question, or changes how we support our partners. That is how we can continue strengthening our work together and improve the conditions people need to thrive.
