By Conor Huynh | Operations Coordinator
At Feedback Labs, our work is rooted in the belief that people are the best experts in their lives and they should drive the policies/programs that affect them. We also aim to leverage our place in the feedback field to amplify and uplift the voices of those most often excluded from the conversation.
One of Feedback Labs’ flagship programs includes LabStorms. LabStorms are biweekly collaborative problem-solving sessions designed to help an organization wrestle with a feedback-related challenge, with the goal of providing actionable suggestions.
Strive Together brought some of their biggest challenges to a recent LabStorm, where they discussed asynchronous learning management systems to create high-impact instruction and coaching for community partners. The organization invests in communities by serving as a financial intermediary between funders and community entities, engaging in innovative approaches to trust-based philanthropy and capacity building through coaching. Their key takeaways were to strategize for collecting authentic feedback, soliciting feedback from grantees, and using feedback as a financial intermediary between community-based organizations and philanthropists.
Silver Linings Mentoring (SLM), a 2022 Feedback Champion, also presented their feedback challenges at a LabStorm. SLM aims to empower youth in foster care through the development of essential life skills. In planning for their new pilot program, they faced challenges with survey response rates. Their key takeaways from the discussion were to collect feedback while considering survey fatigue, integrating real-time feedback and progress, and incentivizing youth participation.
Feedback Labs also announced the launch of the Equity and Feedback Fellowship. This fellowship aims to identify a diverse set of leaders in the nonprofit sector with an interest and commitment to listening and acting on feedback to advance equity in their work. The Equity & Feedback Fellowship provides support to mid-level professionals within U.S states & territories based organizations as they become feedback leaders and advocates of equity.
The Equity & Feedback Fellowship is a joint venture between Evident Change and Feedback Labs. While each organization has used different sources to craft their respective definitions of equity, they are in agreement about the importance, strategies, outcomes, and impact of equity work. Evident Change uses the Race Equity Tools definition of equity which can be found here. You can learn more about Feedback Labs’ definition of equity here.
Most recently, Feedback Labs hosted our annual summit, Feedback+Atlanta, in Atlanta, GA. Over 170 attendees from across the globe convened to network, discuss good feedback practices, and have conversations about feedback and equity. Feedback Labs facilitated a one-day Crash Course prior to the summit, and five organizations presented their feedback challenges at the in-person summit LabStorms. Learn more by reading the daily summit recaps for Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3.
Thanks to your support, Feedback Labs was able to power our programs and collectively center community voices in the feedback field. We look forward to continuing to build the feedback field and make feedback the norm in aid, philanthropy, nonprofits, and government.
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By Conor Huynh | Operations Coordinator
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