Introduction to Learning Stories

PurposePhil is a response to community organizations who argued that while they appreciated their community foundation's efforts to make granting more equitable, they wanted to see the foundation expand their view finder, and turn it on themselves. Rather than focus on the relatively small proportion of philanthropic resources dedicated to granting, foundations, they suggested, might consider their own role in a broader system of philanthropy and its relationship to rising inequality.

PurposePhil sets out to do just that: it helps us navigate a complex philanthropic system held together by policies, practices, resource flows, relationships, power dynamics, values, and logics. Through eight themes, PurposePhil asks:

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  What has been?: What purposes has philanthropy served in the past and how was it understood? Where and when have giving practices been different?
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  What is?: How can we wrap pur heads around such a complex and sometimes opaque system? What patterns and purposes can we see at work in the current system of philanthropy?
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  What could be? What are other possible animating purposes, values, and logics for the system of philanthropy? How might structures, and resource flows, and relationships bring those purposes alive?

It can be exhausting to ask big questions, follow one's curiosity, and weather the discomforts that arise in the process. It is especially so in organizational cultures that prize results, careful planning, and relational care. Big questions can ruffle feathers, following one's curiosity can look like navel gazing, and allowing moments of discomfort may seem uncaring. In order to sustain ourselves in this exploration, PurposePhil also pays attention to the conditions that enable people who are part of the philanthropic system to persevere on this learning journey.

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  To recognize learning as a form of action which requires our presence, curiosity, courage, and humility
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  To acknowledge and take an interest in the discomforts that arise with learning as a source of information about what matters to us, our fears, and our needs.
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  To appreciate the complexity of the highly interconnected system of philanthropy, and introduce systems thinking approaches such as sourcing diverse perspectives, learning through experiments, and a focus on narrative
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  To introduce collaborative inquiry as a method for learning focused on learners' curiosities, hunches, observations, actions, and reflections
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  To introduce this website as a learning resource that can be used in many ways

There is no podcast for the Learning theme.