20151026_122502 It’s Global Pro Bono Week, and Spark wanted to promote and celebrate that here in Winnipeg. So we invited local community development and community economic development organizations to lunch, so they could learn about Spark and talk to us about some of the challenges their organizations are facing that could be addressed through pro bono help.

After some great food from the Lunch Bell Bistro, a local social enterprise, we gave a short presentation about how organizations can get ready to work with a pro bono consultant, and how to identify suitable projects or processes. Then each of the Spark staff went to a separate corner of the room and met briefly with organizations one-on-one to discuss and conduct a rapid assessment of their capacity gaps. These short conversations helped both us and the organizations prepare for a longer, more thorough assessment that will happen over the next couple of weeks, during which we’ll scope out matches based on the projects prioritized during the speed assessment.

From our point of view, the event was a great success: enjoyable, engaging, and a really efficient way of helping organizations get ready for pro bono matches. Matches that will result in stronger and more capable organizations that make a big difference in their communities and our city. If you missed it, no problem: we will definitely be doing more of these in the future!