By Beth Freitas Clark, Intentional Futures, and Beth Mejia, EdSolutions · April 2026
Every funder hopes grantees will share honestly, collaborate openly and carry insights beyond the room. It rarely happens by accident.
In When Convenings Work, Beth Freitas Clark of Intentional Futures and Beth Mejia of EdSolutions examine what made a philanthropically funded Community of Practice (CoP) different. The Innovative Assessment Community of Practice brought together four organizations, ANet, Carnegie Learning, Khan Academy and New Meridian, all navigating complex go-to-market challenges in the assessment space. Participants showed up candid, tested real assumptions and kept advancing the work between sessions. The authors argue those outcomes were structural, not coincidental.
Four design conditions
- Participant-centered agendas. Sessions were built from interviews and surveys, and facilitators adapted in real time to where each organization was in its development and sales cycle.
- Real stakeholder voices. Educators, students, caregivers and district leaders took part as essential contributors, not token panelists. One convening was hosted inside a working school during a school day.
- Aligned support partners. Intentional Futures, EdSolutions and Lyons Assessment Consulting agreed on roles, workflows and success indicators before the first session.
- Strong funder stewardship. The sponsor chose participants who were complementary rather than competitive, set clear expectations, and timed participation so organizations could still shape direction and act on what they learned.
What this means
For funders: design for candor, not compliance. Fund the “invisible work” of facilitation, synthesis and sensemaking between sessions; it deserves line items. Bring demand-side voices into the room to keep strategy grounded in real procurement and adoption dynamics.
For organizations: not every CoP is worth your time. Use these four conditions as a checklist before committing. In a well-designed peer environment, candor is a competitive advantage.