Responding to urgent needs takes more than just strategy—it takes creativity, collaboration and shared values. To this end, GHR Foundation is investing in five BridgeBuilder Challenge Top Ideas with more than just financial support. Earlier this month in Rome, we hosted a workshop with OpenIDEO to enhance tangible and intangible skills that will accelerate their work and learning. For three days, our five Top Idea organizations worked alongside GHR, OpenIDEO and each other to find opportunities to learn, share and amplify their potential.

The workshop was designed to allow the cohort to learn about each other’s work and “build bridges” across projects; provide tools and knowledge that will help carry impact further; dig into the learning they hope to achieve through the projects; and foster a community of allies who will challenge and support each others' work. By identifying shared principles that guide the cohort and drawing energy from the potential of these ideas, the group managed to leave with new relationships based on values, ambition and collaboration.

Each of our Top Idea organizations has devoted time, creativity and effort into building bridges and making our world a better place. This convening marks the celebration of how far they've come and the start of their journey as the first BridgeBuilder cohort. We appreciate their thoughtfulness and ingenuity as they push us to think differently. Together, we hope to keep learning and building as we chart the course for this community’s continued impact.

Learn more about the BridgeBuilder Challenge and each of the 2017 Top Ideas

Participants witnessed impressive progress by GHR partners and encountered momentum around the critical need for family strengthening to prevent child separation. As they return home with inspiration and ideas for increasing impact, we are excited by the possibilities for progress in the country. The aspirations, commitment and energy of our partners gives us great hope for the children of Cambodia.

We look forward to continued collaboration with our partners and grantees as we, together, work toward a world where all children are living in stable, positive, long-term families or family-like environments. To learn more about GHR's efforts to promote family care in Cambodia, contact us.

From Devex:

When GHR Foundation decided to commit $3 million over three years to social innovators bridging the gaps between “peace, prosperity, and planet in radically new ways,” the team determined that a traditional RFP process would not allow it to move as quickly, nor seek out as many perspectives, as it needed. So the organization partnered with the open innovation platform OpenIDEO, which grew out of the Silicon Valley-based firm known for its work in human-centered design, a process that is all about designing with and not for the end user.
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“We’ve been involved in global work for a long time, but with the invitation-only approach of deep partnership and long-term goals, we were wondering, ‘What are we missing that is out there?’” Amy Rauenhorst Goldman, CEO of GHR Foundation, told Devex...
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From Catholic News Service:

While tourists walking around the lobby of Rome’s Crowne Plaza Hotel eagerly discussed their vacation plans, young men and women from around the world were nestled in a nearby conference room, engaged in a different kind of conversation.

Five winners of the 2017 BridgeBuilder Challenge gathered in Rome Oct. 2-4 along with members of the GHR Foundation, a philanthropic association founded by a Catholic couple from Minnesota, to share their winning ideas...
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