About Us

unlocking Future Potential through communities of practice that Center experimentation and learning

We help community foundation leaders and philanthropy infrastructure professionals to design for excellence as architects of change. We co-host inspiring conversations, peer and mentoring support, and co-create tools for design and learning in practice.

Our Vision

Community foundations and collaborative philanthropy infrastructure can drive distributed, innovative solutions for futures of belonging, regeneration and thriving collectively with respect for nature and each other.

If the goal is to change disempowering systems into ones where people acknowledge their agency and communities bring their resources together, might supporting community foundation movements and collaborative philanthropy infrastructure have a role in this change process?

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 root, multiplying assets and actors over time and increasing communities’ trust in their own capacities to build the 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

community foundations – as connecting devices between different kinds of resources and actors in their 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 them with know-how and connections, enhancing their reputation and expanding their opportunities for collective impact

How we work

communities

Practitioners are our core partners in thinking -building knowledge - and doing - experiments of new practice.

We host and contribute to explorations of novel roles, patterns and practices as philanthropy infrastructure that is effective at multiplying and distributing the capacity for action and innovation.

These spaces also build trust and create a sense of shared identity as practitioners who seek and seed systems-level change.

knowledge

We distill insights from practitioners’ experience, bring in possibilities and provocations from emergent fields and co-create actionable knowledge.

We curate an open access library with articles, guides and research developed by our team, our partners, and other inspiring players in philanthropy.

The frames, tools and reflections we share openly aim to enhance our professional, organizational and field capacities to design in complexity.

experiments

Testing new ideas and theories of change in practice is vital for learning in our contexts of increasing uncertainty.

We facilitate the design of experiments based on assets, emerging opportunities and systemic principles.

In communities of practice is also where we collectively make sense of shifts and spot openings for bolder, future-focused philanthropy.

The diversity of our conditions and skills makes for rich settings of inquiry and experimentation.

Our programs

architects of change

How can you seed and grow a movement of transformative community foundations in your country? How do you innovate as a sector to be one step ahead of the curve?

Learn from international peers, design, experiment and share your knowledge with practitioners from Africa, the Americas, Australia and Europe.

catalyst infrastructure

What if philanthropy supporters could help massively multiply the capacities of their sectors by activating their latent possibilities. If we learned new skills for new times as infrastructure?

We support connected ecosystems generate knowledge from practice and return it to grow the 'catalytic' elements of our work?

Generosity for the future

What are different ways to get people interested and capable of supporting their communities over the long term? How can community foundations use their experience to seed new philanthropic and civic engagement in neighbouring geographies?

An experimental approach by Iasi, Timisoara & Valcea community foundations with our support for knowledge generation & sharing.

With the support of C.S. Mott Foundation

In partnership with Philea

Powered by Romanian-American Foundation

Principles distilled in practice

These inform our work as strategists, facilitators and tool builders who help other change architects do effective work in sparking transformative movements. And holding structure for them to grow.

intentional design

Nurturing core capabilities as part of the organization’s DNA gets passed onto the system of local philanthropy through the relationships that community foundations cultivate with their donors, grantees and allies. 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. This replicable design starts with CFSOs as models of practice.

for exponential results

When compounded at the national level, through a network of community foundations, this transmission of different ways of doing can be a game-changer. 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.

creativity= everyone's business

New challenges require new structures and new principles of operating. In spite of their age, community foundations are nimble constructs that integrate mechanisms for effective collaboration and participation. They can also be 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.

Our Impact Ambition

What?

Practitioners become the catalysts of their own philanthropy ecosystems

How?

Continuously learning professionals will elevate their practice in conversation with their international peers

WHY?

To seed and nurture visionary entrepreneurship, make a convincing case for locally rooted and globally connected community foundations and design creative and engaging processes to convene more change-makers to join this field

Our Team and Board

alina porumb, phd

strategic design

Design of infrastructure organizations, support and knowledge systems, governance, leadership coaching, organizational start-up and development

alexandra stef

collective learning and innovation

Community building, participatory design, futures, practice based research and learning ENGLISH, ESPANOL

dia horea

communications and documentation

UX design, research, story telling

stefan cibian, phd

board member

Development expert and researcher FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR OF FAGARAS RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Anamaria Vrabie, PHD

board member

Innovation expert and researcher FOUNDER OF URBAN INSIGHTS CENTER

The Inspire Institute – formerly the Association for the Practice of Transformation – supports the intentional and systemic transformations of individuals, organizations, communities and societies by stimulating collaboration, research, learning, future orientated design and social innovation.

contact us at

hello@inspire-change.org

The Inspire Institute is a registered nonprofit entity based in Brasov, Romania, UTC +3.

ARCHITECTS OF CHANGE is possible due
to funding from C.S. Mott Foundation and partnerships with long term scope with:
Assifero Italy
Association of Spanish Foundations
Austrian Association of Foundations
Australian Community Foundations
CivSource Uganda
Comunalia Mexico
Community Foundations of Canada
COS-Fundaciones Territoriales Chile
Ghana Philanthropy Forum
European Community Foundations
Initiative
Federation of Romanian Community Foundations
IDIS Brazil
Mosaico Lab Peru
Roots and Wings Foundation Hungary
TerritoriA Columbia
Trag Foundation Serbia
UK Community Foundations

CATALYST INFRASTRUCTURE is possible due to the main partnerships for Pex Catalyst Lab with Philea and
Iac Berlin
and the membership of the Inspire Institute in Philea and Wings

GENEROSITY FOR THE FUTURE is possible due to the funding of the Romanian-American Foundation and partnership with
Iasi Community Foundation
Timisoara Community Foundation
Valcea Community Foundation

unlocking Future Potential through communities of practice that Center experimentation and learning

Our Vision