At CHCF, we appreciate and leverage the expertise and experience of our peers—both internal and external (e.g., grantees, partners, communities). We do this via three central activities: 1) our project development and peer review process, 2) body of work reviews, and 3) learning events.

Project Development and Peer Review Process

Our collaborative approach to grantmaking provides a natural way to learn both internally and externally. While the foundation occasionally issues open requests for proposals (RFPs), most of the work we support is co-designed in an iterative process with our partners and stakeholders. This approach relies on deep partnership and trust built over time, and requires us to listen, observe, reflect, and reimagine — all skills central to learning.

Every project at CHCF is further strengthened through internal collaboration and peer review. Project proponents share with colleagues a write-up of the proposed project that solicits reflection on key issues to consider. Program, communications, policy, and L&I staff provide input through peer review meetings and written feedback every two weeks. At CHCF, all of these colleagues serve as both grantmakers as well as functional experts, including the L&I team who each have their own grant portfolio.

This peer review process allows for frequent engagement of grantmaking colleagues and partners internally and externally. Many rich conversations about grantmaking approaches, challenges, and ideas for greater impact surface during these interactions, spurring improvements for projects under discussion, as well as our future work. Our peer review process and the collaborative culture of sharing and learning it creates is core to CHCF’s learning culture.

Body of Work Reviews

CHCF has three goals, which are divided into focus areas by topic and then divided further into bodies of work (our term for a portfolio of grants). Each body of work has a specific topic or community focus (e.g., homelessness, coverage, data exchange) and is composed of projects (grants) that aim to improve California’s health care system by pulling various levers for change.

The L&I team leads program staff in conducting periodic body of work reviews, which include these activities:

• Development of a strategy reflection and planning document (drawing from emergent learning principles), including analysis of internal data from grant coding
• Conversation with internal colleagues, external partners, and L&I staff to refine thinking, identify questions, and share ideas on where the work has been and should go
• A review meeting attended by senior leadership, the body of work leads, the communications lead, the supervising director, foundation colleagues whose work intersects with the body of work, and L&I staff

As a final step in our process, the body of work goes before the board to get its input on the strategy and approval of the budget for the next two to four years.

Learning Events

Adhering to the belief that learning is an ongoing habit rather than a one-time activity, the L&I team develops and facilitates learning events for program staff throughout the year. These are opportunities for staff to pause from busy schedules and reflect on our work together.

Each year, the L&I team organizes three daylong events dedicated to learning — two for all program staff and one for program directors. The team also works with staff across the organization to host biweekly “lunch & learn” sessions. Topics for these learning events typically emerge from peer review conversations, analysis of grant-level data, and questions, observations, and suggestions from senior management and staff. Many of the materials prepared for these events are posted on our internal library of grantmaking tools for staff use.

Examples of learning event topics include:

• Failure and risk taking in grantmaking
• Measuring impact of grantmaking
• Diversifying our grantee partnerships
• Training sessions (with outside trainers) on: equitable evaluation, facilitation skills, and negotiation
• Narrative change