enturies ago, Native American farmers engineered an ingenious gardening system called the Three Sisters Garden, in which multiple crops — corn, beans, and squash — are planted in the same soil bed. The varied needs and development of each plant create a mutually protective and productive environment.

In 2007, The McKnight Foundation's board of directors made a strategic decision to consolidate two separate grantmaking programs: the international program, which had supported social and economic empowerment in select Southeast Asian and East African countries since the late 1980s, and the Collaborative Crop Research Program (CCRP), which since 1994 had helped resource-poor rural people in developing countries achieve food security.

The board's decision was motivated by a desire to take advantage of, and strengthen, existing synergies among the programs. Although the origins, history, methods, and geographical focus of each program area are distinct, many of the challenges that our dedicated grantees are trying to overcome have parallels.

Like the Three Sisters Garden, McKnight has sought to unite these programs creatively and efficiently. In so doing, we hope to create a richer combined yield across the breadth of these fertile fields.

Background

lthough the majority of McKnight's total annual payout stays in Minnesota, several of the Foundation's philanthropic efforts reach beyond our home state, to people in need around the world.

With a desire to formalize McKnight's international giving, the board of directors approved creation of the Southeast Asia (1988) and East Africa (1989) grantmaking programs. In 1994, McKnight sowed the seed of a separate international program: the CCRP, which supports agricultural research aimed at improving food production and nutritional content for people in developing countries.

In neighboring but separate plots, these two programs grew and thrived independently for years. Through efforts as varied as natural resource management assistance for farmers in Laos, microfinance programs for women in Uganda, and research into the growth and marketing of a particularly hardy strain of sweet potato in Burkina Faso, the benefits harvested have been substantial.

To date, the international and CCRP programs have granted $34.7 million and $55.2 million, respectively. In 2007, more than $3.3 million was awarded to nongovernmental organizations in East Africa and Southeast Asia, and $3 million was awarded to crop research pioneers in Latin America and Africa.

One of the many successes is St. Jude Family Projects and Training Centre in Masaka, Uganda. Established in 1990, St. Jude's is an intensive, integrated, sustainable organic farm that generates increased yields at reduced cost by using modern principles of sustainable agriculture. Its success has strongly influenced rural farming in the region. The center has organized 300 rural farmers, primarily single mothers and widows, into self-help training groups to learn the St. Jude's approach.

Consolidating: Why Now?

ou don't need to look far to see how much our world has changed since the 1980s. Scientific and technological advances have reshaped society. Distances have shrunk. Information moves at fiber-optic speed. Boundaries (both physical and geopolitical, but especially those between fields of knowledge) are fluid and permeable. And while a global market has empowered some with rapid growth, it has also carried the effects of a shared struggling economy to all corners of the world map.

We recognized the time was right to reconsider and refine McKnight's international strategies. McKnight's board was driven to realize the potential of these innovative and resourceful programs to mutually reinforce and improve each other, while retaining the unique strengths and characteristics of each. In spring 2008, Jane Maland Cady was hired as the first director of McKnight's newly merged international program.

Maland Cady sees the consolidation process moving forward on two parallel tracks. On one track, we will take advantage of the overlapping strengths of the respective programs' "theories of change." On the other track, we aim to engineer an environment in which differences between the programs will lead to lively cross-program learning and problem-solving.

Existing Similarities: A Strong Foundation

here are two key areas of overlap in the philosophical underpinnings of these areas of work. For one, both have always relied on the expertise and on-the-ground experience of field-tested and knowledgeable representatives who understand and respect the local customs of the communities in which they work. Second, both have placed a premium on cultivating and empowering local leadership.

When necessary, McKnight expands beyond the skills and experience of its full-time staff with the expertise and analytical abilities provided by external, field-specific partnerships. With the cultural, political, and geographical complexities of grantmaking thousands of miles away from our office in downtown Minneapolis, this policy comes to bear on our international work in a big way. Such partners include liaison scientists in the CCRP work, and seasoned program consultants in East Africa and Southeast Asia.

When considering individuals best-suited to advancing our international goals, just as important as "book smarts" — how to write a grant review or read a financial statement, for example — is "field smarts," or the ability to operate effectively and respectfully in vastly different cultures. We invest in knowledge, experience, and proven track records. McKnight engages exceptional representatives who understand and respect the cultures in which they work; in fact, four of the nine program consultants currently under contract are from the regions in which they are based.

Founder William McKnight believed firmly in the ability of people, given enough resources and support, to solve their own problems. Just as we rely on effective consultants to help us make funding decisions, we also rely on effective organizations to further our goals after making the grant. While McKnight supports organizations of all sizes, a hallmark of our international work has always been capacity building at local and regional levels.

New Opportunities: Shared Learning

eyond the strength of similarities across the work, we see great opportunities in the differences as well. By allowing the roots and branches of these programs to intertwine, we hope to create an environment in which spontaneous cross-program learning takes place, an environment conducive to problem-solving that is nimble and creative rather than limited and controlled. Simply put, we want to make it easier for folks who are scattered around the globe but working on similar problems to brainstorm together, to learn with and from each other.

Sweet potato fruit

Importantly, the proposed benefits of this process are not mere hypothesis. We have already witnessed real-world, practical improvements beginning to emerge from this approach. For example, there are currently two grantee programs attempting to capitalize on the growing and marketing of the orange-fleshed sweet potato. One grantee, located in Uganda, is within McKnight's East Africa program; the other, located in Burkina Faso (a relatively small country in West Africa), receives funding through the CCRP. McKnight recently arranged for the staff of these organizations, separated by thousands of miles, to meet each other and share what they've learned. The simplicity of this "field trip" is deceptive — it proved to be immensely helpful and enlightening for both sides. Two other potential areas of cross-program dialogue include the fields of agricultural training and the social sciences.

Above all, the benefits of this cross-program learning will extend beyond knowledge shared among grantees and problems solved in the field. By making formerly unconnected grantee organizations — not to mention formerly unconnected staff members — part of the same conversation, a powerful information-sharing circuit is completed. This completed circuit has great potential to streamline and improve our operations.

he unique and natural characteristics of the crops in a Three Sisters Garden create a mutually beneficial environment for growth. The corn stalk serves as a pole for the beans, the beans help to add the nitrogen to the soil that the corn needs, and the squash provides a ground cover of shade that helps the soil retain moisture. This method saves resources, time, and space by allowing the natural compatibility of these crops to support each other. In fact, insects and scavenging animals even find it harder to invade the garden because of the densely intertwined root systems.

By functioning more collaboratively and toward mutually reinforcing goals, the unique qualities of these different programs stand to help each other grow to new heights, while achieving greater levels of effectiveness and efficiency.

Related links

McKnight's international grantmaking
The McKnight Foundation Collaborative Crop Research Program