Scanning the Landscape

Scanning is no longer something done only when planning a new program or contemplating a shift in strategy. Using learning networks, grant makers are starting to scan continuously, looking beyond the usual sources to find innovative organizations and fresh ideas. GrantCraft asked seven grant makers how they build networks to discover the unexpected in their fields and communities:

• Joy Vermillion Heinsohn, program officer at the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation.
• Susan Jenkins, executive director of the Cherokee Preservation Foundation.
• Marion Kane, executive director, Pat Brandes, senior advisor, and Roberto Cremonini, chief knowledge and learning officer of the Barr Foundation.
• Mary Kaplan, vice president of program at the Endowment for Health in Concord, New Hampshire.
• Anne Vally, special initiatives officer at The James Irvine Foundation.

This conversation supplements GrantCraft’s guide, Scanning the Landscape: Finding Out What's Going on in Your Field. Additional editions of A Closer Look are also available.