Knowledge mobilization for social change organizations
WHY A GARDEN?
Well, just as it is in our organizations, (especially in regards to org learning and knowledge management), a community garden ...
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Requires intentional and active people power, (something that is missing when we talk about interdependence as resembling a mycelium network)!
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Contains both abundance and thirst at the same time.
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Has opt-in practices (such as Sunday supper) and mandatory practices (such as: we agree to put our tools back clean and where we found them)
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Benefits from a shared line of sight and collective planning (how many tomatoes do we REALLY need, where is kale growing best?)
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Benefits from shared understanding of its purpose—are we growing this garden to feed people? To attract pollinators? For another purpose? The answers to these questions will impact how we work together and what practices we use!
Read more about the Community Garden Metaphor for knowledge mobilization and organizational learning in social change organizations.
BUT WHAT IS GARDEN PARTY?
GEO 2026 POP-UP
Adjacent to the 2026 Grantmakers for Effective Organizations conference, Garden Party hosted a refreshingly simple learning experience that centered joy, curiosity, and play.
A group of GEO members gathered to answer questions about topics which colleagues and aquantances never even knew they knew so much about! The pop-up challenged our ideas about expertise, what’s worth knowing, and what makes a good question.
Read the garden log for this event to learn more about how it went and what we might do differenly the next time we plant this practice.
Garden Party is a joint project of GV Advisory and Think Twice. It's where we get to test ideas that live alongside both of our paid work, play with what we're learning, and invite others in.
