I attended Grassroots Grantmakers’ “On the Ground” event in Cleveland this past week. The Cleveland Foundation’s Neighborhood Connections program served as a terrific case study for engaging everyday people in community improvement. Its approach draws heavily from the community engagement and network leadership practices developed by Bill Traynor and Frankie Blackburn of Trusted Space Partners. Both were at the event coaching participants on new practices in community building.

The sessions reminded me that early in my blogging, I’d attempted to use Traynor’s practices to the question “What if donors had really cool, trusted places to learn and gather?” Over four posts, I created a hypothetical Community Giving Center that paid attention to: human environment and value exchange, open architecture and easy affiliation, weaving and mobilizing resources, and meaningful giving. At the core, the idea of the Center was about flexibly helping people get their generous stuff done, however they define that along the way.

I still like the idea, but have yet to figure out a business plan to sustain it. Someday…