About us

Unlocking potential through communities of practice, centering experimentation and learning.

We help community foundation leaders and philanthropy infrastructure professionals to design as architects of change.

We co-host inspiring conversations, offer peer and mentoring support, and co-create tools for learning in practice.

Our vision

Community foundations, a philanthropy infrastructure that is collaborative and networked, can power futures of belonging and regeneration. Places where people thrive collectively, with respect for nature and for each other.

If we seek to change disempowering systems into ones where people acknowledge their agency and communities bring their resources together, might community foundation movements and collaborative philanthropy infrastructure play a part?

Movements run on broad collaboration and participation. They are also full of examples of entrepreneurial spirit – groups of people who take the risk of acting upon a belief that the future can look differently from the present. By bringing together local assets and leveraging them into philanthropic mechanisms that create impact.

As people see the results of surfacing and giving resources, a culture of giving takes hold. People notice assets and actors multiplying over time, and gain trust in their communities’ own capacities to build futures of belonging and regeneration.

PARTICIPATION

COLLABORATION

SENSE OF BELONGING

We focus on

Key concepts

★ strategic design – manifested as the ability to organize systems of collaboration at different levels of action (local, national, regional, international).

★ community foundations – as connecting players between different kinds of resources and actors in the community, using philanthropic mechanisms such as funds and grants to align agendas and generate results.

★ systems-changing players – as part of a national network of collaboration that equips community foundations with know-how and connections, enhancing their reputation and expanding their opportunities for collective impact.

Principles distilled in practice

These inform our work as strategists, facilitators and tool builders who help other architects of change be effective in the work of sparking transformative movements.

And in holding structure for them to grow.

Intentional design

Being intentional in their goals and roles, and capable in their delivery, community foundations and their infrastructure can shift the systems in which they operate. Their core capabilities are passed on to the system of local philanthropy. This replicable design starts with CFSOs as models of practice.

for exponential results

Over time, several forms of capital - social, financial, reputational - accumulate, leveraging the initial investment exponentially. That is when results speak for themselves. Visionary and collaborative leadership are needed when the scafolding for community (foundations) movements is designed.

through collective creativity

Community foundations are innovating agents in their ecosystems by incentivizing the creativity and civic imagination of a broader spectrum of people, groups and organizations. Permeating creativity and participation into their practice, community foundations and their infrastucture can be relevant and ready for the future.