Funding Systems Change
Transforming funding allocation through stakeholder dialogues
Foundations play an important role in enabling and guiding action towards a more sustainable and ethical future. The increasing complexity of the challenges we are facing and the need to work towards systemic change has motivated us to convene actors from the field that are interested in exploring this topic further. Our intention is to co-create a series of stakeholder dialogues with the aim to ideate and prototype novel modes of collaboration and funding to enable and enhance social innovation and systemic change at scale.
Why is this important?
If we are to achieve the Agenda 2030, we urgently need approaches that go beyond fighting the symptoms and allow us to address root causes. Band aid politics and incremental innovation is insufficient to solve the complex social and environmental challenges we are faced with. Social Innovation Labs are one example of a strategy that has the potential to bring stakeholders together to co-create effective solutions and create impact on the systemic level.
Stakeholder interviews showed that foundations are aware of challenges when it comes to funding systemic change initiatives. People and organisations who wish to lead such initiatives are facing hurdles, too: cross-sectoral collaboration, new methods and emergent planning to just name a few. By bringing relevant stakeholders together to explore and address these shared challenges, we aim to strengthen the Swiss funding environment’s capacity to advance the societal transformation needed now.
Our prototype: What do we want to do?
The plan is to organise, facilitate and document three stakeholder dialogue evenings (e.g. in Basel, Zurich and Lausanne or Geneva) between January and March 2021 to reflect on questions such as:
What meaning does systemic change have for participants?
What do different actors in this space need to support their work?
What might be the biggest hindrances for actors to focus on funding systems change?
What might influence the current behaviour of funders in this space?
How to create a narrative that motivates diverse stakeholders to participate in a movement for systems change?
Stakeholders to attend these gatherings include:
Professional, family and business foundations and philanthropists
Foundation federations
Administration working on/with foundations
Academic centres
Outputs
Sensing conversations with 35+ mostly representatives from different organisations to activate and sense into the ecosystem of foundations, associations and academic institutes as a focal point of the exploration.
The research process culminated in an online learning session with 7 foundations represented, as well as the Vereinigung liechtensteinischer gemeinnütziger Stiftungen und Trusts (VLGST) and the Center for Philanthropy Geneva. In this session, we shared the main insights gathered so far, and harvested further perspectives on the challenges, opportunities and best practices around funding systemic change (read our main insights and learnings in this blogpost).
From the five key challenges we surfaced for systems change funding, the one that was deemed highest priority was the Adapted and innovative funding mechanisms for systemic change projects.
Taking this on board, we have completed this learning cycle by hosting two additional workshops on the two examples of such funding mechanisms, namely:
1) Participatory grantmaking with Grantcraft and SKKG (find the insights in this blogpost)
2) Core funding with Oak Foundation and MAVA Foundation (find the insights in this blogpost)
Outcomes
We learned how difficult it is to establish a reputation as a new voice in the field. We realised that we had struck some chords when passionate feedback came back our way. We succeeded in readjusting again and again to changing circumstances and volatile decision-making. We learned how to deal with conflict in the team and with outside forces. We applied ourselves to not giving up in the face of adversity and to rebound after a setback. We also learned how to deal with our own frustrations and shadows. And we were truly sorry to see one team member withdraw from the work. We dismantled some of our assumptions, pre-conceptions and projections. And we upended some of our friendly and hostile images concerning the sector and its actors.
Have we been able to change the system? The answer is: surely not, as we are only a tiny speck in a vast field. However, what we hope to have achieved is to have engaged a handful of established actors enough to be willing to dive deeper into some of the crystallised themes together with us in the form of stakeholder dialogue workshops. The next few months will tell us whether we have indeed succeeded…
N.b. This process has also contributed to co-founding the Complexity Compass, which is a knowledge and competence center on impact funding for systems change, and supports foundations in navigating the increasing complexity. We are thrilled to be accompanying first foundations on this learning journey!
Additionally, this process also highlighted the need for spaces where foundations that are interested can exchange about their challenges and best practices, and build collaborations. The idea emerged to launch an alliance of funders for systems change and as we were working on this, we heard from Ashoka Switzerland that they were also taking steps towards a similar vision. Walking the talk on collaboration over competition, we decided to merge the two initiatives. Collaboratio helvetica and Ashoka Switzerland are now co-initiating a process called ‘Funding Systems Change’ with 13 foundations, social innovation actors and experts. Our goal is to build a shared understanding of systems change and what it requires in terms of funding practices, current obstacles and best practices, in order to then collaborate on different prototypes. This project will kick-off in October 2021, so if you are a foundation interested in joining us or finding out more about it, feel free to reach out!
Contact
Do you want to find out more? Please reach out to Nora Wilhelm, contact person of the working group.
