Dodge Foundation Hosts First Partner and Grantee Convening

More than 100 people came together to connect, build skills, and imagine what’s possible

Last month, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation brought together more than 100 people representing 44 organizations for its first-ever partner and grantee convening. This event was a full day designed around the belief that we can achieve greater impact together, in true partnership, than working in silos towards our goals.

The gathering drew nonprofit leaders, community partners, and grantees from across New Jersey working on the Foundation’s core focus areas of Housing Choice and Economic Mobility. Rather than a traditional conference format, the convening was built around active participation: attendees came not just to listen, but to learn, connect, and build alongside one another.

Dr. Ruha Benjamin on Leading with Imagination

The day opened with a keynote address from Dr. Ruha Benjamin, professor at Princeton University and author of Race After Technology and Imagination: A Manifesto, among other works. Dr. Benjamin is one of the most important voices at the intersection of race, technology, and justice, and her remarks set the tone for everything that followed.

She challenged attendees to treat imagination not as an afterthought, but as a core tool for social change. Imagination is a tool that communities have always relied on and that the current moment demands. Her address drew on her research and writing to make the case that envisioning a different world is not a distraction from the practical work; it is the practical work.

A Day Built for the Work

The agenda reflected five goals the Foundation set out to achieve: giving participants practical skills and tools they could put to use immediately; creating space to meet new people and partners who can drive the work forward; encouraging big, unconventional thinking about what change is possible; co-creating an action plan through hands-on learning; and sharing the Foundation’s own perspective on where the work stands and where it needs to go.

The result was a room that felt less like a convening and more like a collaboration — one that surfaced new connections, tested new ideas, and sent people home with concrete connections.

What Participants Took Away

Feedback from participants pointed to something we at the Dodge Foundation believe deeply: the hunger for this kind of space is real.

Partners left with practical ideas they plan to apply immediately, from strengthening how they use data to measure outcomes, to integrating storytelling more intentionally into their communications, to building new partnerships with peers they met during the event. Participants also expressed a strong desire to keep learning together: to exchange resources, deepen relationships, and collaborate across organizations and the issue areas they share.

One participant captured a tension that ran through several conversations: “There is an appetite for nonprofits to think differently in this time, but I am not sure nonprofits know how to do this.” That observation points to exactly the kind of role the Foundation hopes to play. Our goal is to support with funding, but also to be a convener creating the conditions for collaboration, shared problem-solving, and capacity-building that go beyond what any single grant can provide.

Looking Ahead

For the Dodge Foundation, the convening marked something more than a single event. It was an opening and a first step toward a more connected, more generative network of organizations working toward a New Jersey where race and zip code no longer determine economic outcomes.

The Foundation looks forward to building on the relationships and ideas that took shape last week, and to continuing the work alongside the partners and grantees who showed up ready to do it.