Category: Uncategorized

It’s no secret it’s getting harder and harder for civil society organizations around the world to function, and for funders to support them. Dozens of countries are increasing restrictions on what civil society organizations can do, and from where they can get money. Funders and NGOs are pushing back, usually through public policy advocacy. But… Continue reading Resilient funders

We’ve all been there – a discussion about gender issues in international development deteriorates in a defensive exchange, and people finally give up, convinced that the other is too narrow minded to work with. So one of the most important factors in what makes some people more sensitive to shocks and stresses than others gets… Continue reading Resilience and the shape of your body

As funders we often talk about supporting movements – the environmental movement, women’s movement, etc. Yet how do we do that? What does it mean to support a movement with grants? We can learn from movements that have been successful in the past. The civil rights movement in the United States is a classic example.… Continue reading Supporting Social Movements With Grantmaking

When I first started hearing folks talking about complexity and social change 10-15 years ago, I figured that was fine for the ecologists and physicists, but not much use to me. Yet the more I heard, the more the ideas started making intuitive sense to me. When you’re working for social change, you’re mucking with… Continue reading Tools for taking social complexity seriously

Systems Stress Test I swear this won’t be another blog about a virus. OK, maybe a little bit. A few years back I wrote about learning to see systems – food systems, transportation systems, financial systems, governance systems, etc. In order to build our social resilience, we’ve got to know what systems we rely on,… Continue reading Systems Stress Test