PRE-CONFERENCE LEARNING INSTITUTES
July 11-12, 2010

Semi-Annual Conference: July 13-14, 2010
New York, New York

Registration for both Institutes is now closed

About the Pre-Conference Learning Institutes

IHRFG is offering two concurrent intensive learning institutes immediately preceding the Semi-Annual Conference in New York on July 13-14: one on Gender Justice and Human Rights Grantmaking; the other on Evaluation and Human Rights Grantmaking.

Each institute will begin over dinner on the evening of July 11 and continue through the next day. (See below for details on time and location.)

The Learning Institutes are designed only to grantmakers and invited speakers and guests, and the maximum number of participants is 30. The cost to attend is $150.

INSTITUTE ON GENDER JUSTICE AND HUMAN RIGHTS GRANTMAKING
Co-sponsored with Grantmakers Without Borders

Do you want to deepen your grantmaking impact? Increase your efforts to combat discrimination and violence? Understand the practical application of gender justice?

Men/boys and women/girls have different social positions and experiences, lending them different skills, opportunities, resources, and degrees of power. Understanding this can help funders increase their awareness of how their funding programs can affect men/boys and women/girls differently, intentionally or unintentionally. A gender lens applied to human rights grantmaking could lead, for example, to juvenile justice programs that factor in child care for female parolees; HIV prevention programs that target married women as well as single men; and environmental programs that incorporate LGBT rights into conservation efforts. 

In this institute, participants will explore what a “gender perspective” means and how to practically integrate that into their work. Participants will:

The objectives of the Gender Justice Institute are to:

• deepen understanding of gender equality within a human rights framework;
• explore the importance of a gender perspective particular to human rights grantmaking;
• address barriers to grantmaking with a gender lens; and
• share grantmaking strategies for advocating for gender equality.

During the workshop, participants will:

• Explore a fresh perspective on gender as a concept far broader than a focus on women and girls
• Work in small groups to reflect on obstacles and opportunities for applying a gendered perspective to human rights grantmaking
• Draw from each other’s successes and challenges to develop guiding strategies for grantmaking with a gender perspective

Through case studies, small group work, and role-plays, funders will interactively dissect the gender landscape and gain insights and practical ideas for moving forward.

Read the Gender Justice Institute’s agenda.

Read In Focus: Gender Justice and Human Rights Grantmaking - An Introduction

INSTITUTE ON EVALUATION AND HUMAN RIGHTS GRANTMAKING

Are you staying up nights, paralyzed with anxiety over evaluation? Why, oh why, do trustees or donors or the bosses upstairs keep asking you to demonstrate grantee impact or to come up with a gorgeous measurement tool? Or do you just wonder what difference your organization has made as a human rights donor?  You are not alone!  In response to expressed desire among funders for experiential and peer learning opportunities, IHRFG is offering a one-day institute on evaluation and human rights grantmaking on July 11-12, 2010.

This institute will offer conceptual approaches for understanding and conducting evaluation, create space for discussion/reflection of grant-maker and grantee effectiveness, and feature what we consider to be compelling evaluation approaches with practical applications to grantmaking and human rights work. This institute represents the beginning of what we hope will be an ongoing conversation within IHRFG about evaluation and how donors can help to strengthen activism and best support efforts to advance human rights around the world.  Discussion at this institute, and particularly participant ideas and feedback, will also inform the efforts of the newly-established IHRFG working group on evaluation, co-chaired by Mona Khan (Fund for Global Human Rights) and Bess Rothenberg (American Jewish World Service).

Through this institute, participants will:

1. Gain a concrete conceptual framework that allows them to identify short- and long-term outcomes and assess what they need to do institutionally to develop an effective evaluation process
2. Understand the benefits of utilizing evaluation to inform an institution’s grant-making practices, policies and strategies
3. Explore approaches to assess progress of grant-making programs towards achieving social change goals
4. Gain insights and practical ideas from other grant-makers about how to approach evaluation holistically and to address common challenges, and
5. Reflect on their own institution’s approach to evaluation.

Read the Evaluation Institute’s agenda.

In order to maximize learning and make full use of the day, participants will be asked to do a modest amount of preparatory work (light reading, completing a short survey) in advance of the Institute.

Registration
Registration for both institutes is now closed.

Pre-Conference Learning Institutes Venues and Times

Sunday, July, 11, 2010, 5:30-8:00 pm
Opening Dinners for Learning Institutes
45 West 36th Street, between 5th and 6th Avenues
New York, New York 10018

Monday, July 12, 2010, 8:30 am-5:30 pm
Learning Institutes, continued
New York University School of Law
108 West 3rd Street, between Sullivan and MacDougal Streets
New York, New York 10012

This venue is compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.