As summer transitions to fall and backpacks are full of new notebooks and sharpened pencils, local leaders find their seats and prepare for a year of learning, connection, and community.

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To help turn new insight into action, we developed three new reflection and discussion guides that accompany the Stories of Change publication. Learn more about how they can be used for individual reflection or, ideally, individual reflection that is then processed with a group of stakeholders committed to moving from insight to new action.

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Mary Bevans Gillett, Director of the Northwest Michigan Arts & Culture Network shares their experience, highlighting how the Learning Fund enabled them to go beyond individual professional development, foster collective impact, and ignite a ripple effect of change throughout the region.

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In this guest post from James Dake, Education Director of Grass River Natural Area, learn about interpreting the natural world and creating access for everyone. Dake shares his recent experience utilizing Rotary Charities Learning Fund.

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Sakura and Freya shared our approach to catalyzing positive change with other funders at the GEO Learning Conference. Our participation at the conference allowed us to connect with like-minded individuals who are curious about adopting a systems change approach in their work and funding.

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Prioritizing your learning and taking the time to invest in new skills and connect with other professionals is critical to our long-term success and the success of our organizations.

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Exploring the power of storytelling for nonprofits, emphasizing the importance of authenticity and including the voices of those with lived experiences in communicating an organization's mission and driving change.

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If organized philanthropy aims to make progress on complex, systemic issues, philanthropy itself must transform.

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Five key insights emerged across the four case studies featured in Stories of Change that point to the practices that have accelerated changemakers’ progress in transforming the systems at the heart of complex community issues. These insights are for anyone working to change the odds in favor of communities where everyone can thrive.

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Our Director of Community Development, Kristin Hettich, reflects on her recent trip to Malawi and Kenya with the Traverse City Sunrise Rotary Club.

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In 2022-23, Rotary Charities is experimenting with working more “out loud” by sharing some of our tools and processes, questions we’re asking ourselves, and our work in progress. In this blog, our Director of Systems Change & Learning, Freya Bradford, first shares some of the results of our Changemaker Needs Assessment and then explores a process we are trying to apply learnings like those and the questions it is bringing up for her.

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Rotary Charities of Traverse City is pleased to announce its recent award of $270,000 to seven regional nonprofits as part of its 2022 Spring grant cycle.

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This final installment in Freya's four-part systems change series explores two systemic learning questions, potential indicators of change to look for, and methods we might use to capture signs of change all along our journeys.

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Once opportunities and points of leverage are identified, systems can begin to shift when multiple actions across a system design a constellation of actions that act on those patterns.

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A lack of affordable housing is a common challenge to "gateway communities". Community members may hold the key to a unique solution.

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Five years ago, Rotary Charities began a journey to shift our focus from charity to changemaking in an effort to better help our region tackle our most complex problems and create community assets for all. We have much work ahead.

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Good Samaritan Family Services has grown its programming over 30 years to support its neighbors in Ellsworth, MI. With support of an Assets for Thriving Communities grant, their Family Center buildout is now complete.

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This is the second in a series of blogs about different aspects of systems change work. This series is about making different choices about how we work and what we work on when we are aiming for community-level change in our most complex problems. These are choices that require we walk upstream, together, to investigate why our problem looks the way it does downriver.

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With the support of a $50,000 Assets for Thriving Communities grant the Traverse City office will serve at least 250 immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers living in Northern Michigan communities during the next two years.

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Exploring the unique power of story in systems change work.

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With the support of a $50,000 Rotary Charities Assets for Thriving Communities grant, The Botanic Garden at Historic Barns Park plans to transform a 1900’s era dairy barn into an education center and develop a children's sensory garden, projects that embody the “beauty is therapy” ideal that guided the institution which shaped the land.

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With the support of a $50,000 Assets for Thriving Communities grant, the nonprofit Bay Community Theatre plans to replace outdated and crumbling infrastructure and provide engaging experiences for the community with a keen interest in accessibility and affordability.

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The first in a four-part blog series exploring different aspects of systems change work: convening, connecting & committing; finding leverage points for change; designing interventions to change systems; and learning as we go.

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A $50,000 Assets for Thriving Communities grant will support a collaborative effort to re-route the North Country Trail through downtown Kalkaska and create a non-motorized accessible trailhead and boardwalk along the Boardman River.

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Last month, Rotary Charities officially launched a new service to support grantees working to change the roots of complex community problems. The pilot will include all grantees taking a collaborative systems approach and will make 5 to 10 hours of coaching from systems change experts available at no cost.

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