Using systems thinking, identify connections between philanthropy and other systems. Resources flows offer a starting point to understand the structure of philanthropy.
W.K. Kellogg Foundation added a racial analysis to its mission, reflecting a more explicit narrative about root causes and their role in addressing them.
Grapple with the idea of relationships across time. How much should foundations focus on the urgencies of the present, right wrongs of the past, or lay the groundwork for future generations?
Gain insights into the origins of present-day philanthropy by getting curious about the purpose, values, beliefs, and power dynamics, behind past practices.
Download the worksheet and critically examine a recent decision. What logics & lenses were at play? What would happen if you tried on different distributive logics and ethical lenses?
There is no one way to make sense of how philanthropy's structural elements relate, but looking through a range of lenses can lead us to ask different questions and consider different interests.
Understand the power of story & narrative in conveying ideas about causation, possibility, beliefs, and values -- which can be used intentionally to drive change.
Delve into the controversial question of whether an organization can or should ever be neutral. Let's learn from the lively debate over at the public library.
Encounter three foundations who focus on strategies to address urgencies in the here and now. Read about their experiences with spending down, philanthropic reform, and mission-aligned investment.
Grapple with the challenge of influencing a complex system. Appreciate how experimentation, emergence, and creativity can serve better than subject expertise and rationality.
Delve into questions of community, difference, and degrees of participation and control. Hone your perspective on philanthropic institutions as community players with dynamic roles.
Study what makes for a purpose statement you can be guided and inspired by: compare the statements of purpose from several Canadian Community Foundations and grow your own sense of discernment about what makes purpose more or less powerful.
Philanthropy offers a feel-good story about improving quality of life. But, to what extent is that intention ever realized? PurposePhil helps us learn within complex systems.
What are the moral obligations foundations have towards righting wrongs of the past? Learn about two foundations who have gone down the road of reparations.
Differentiate purpose from strategy and understand its power in organizations to imbue every structure, process, role, and communication with greater meaning.
We can use systems thinking to sense philanthropy's potential for social impact, as well as how it might be part of conditions that hold wicked social and environmental problems in place.
Chorus Foundation learned how social processes determine the equity of sustainable economies so they re-articulated their purpose as "just transitions."
How do we divide resources justly? Explore the concept of "distributive justice" and other logics that can help us make decisions about how to allocate resources fairly.
Understand what it means to be working in the realm of complexity. Learn about collaborative inquiry, a process that can help us build alternative perspectives on systems that we are part of.
Perpetual endowments are well established within the philanthropic sector, some say as a source of stability across generations, some say as a means to hoard resources.
Tackle the questions around the ethical responsibilities of present generations to their own, past, and future generations. What is our role in repairing injustices of the past vs shaping the future?
Learn about Vancouver Foundation's PurposePhil journey. From surfacing values logics to grappling with purpose. Come along on VF's very own learning journey.
Mental shortcuts lead to biased decision-making. 'Fast thinking' can help us make quick decisions, and it can lead to error in judgement, especially when it comes to moral decisions.
From Technological Innovation to "the Democratic Urge"
From technological innovation to how citizens and political systems can work together to drive change: Learn from Kettering Foundation's big narrative pivot.
Encounter Nina Simon's argument that community institutions must not only engage people much more broadly, but seek to be changed by their participation - or risk irrelevance.
Get curious about how societies practiced giving and resource redistribution in other times and places. Appreciate contemporary philanthropy in its historical and cultural context.
Learn from the influential founder of Visa about why every organization needs a moral purpose, and how that purpose unifies, galvanizes, and enlivens any collective endeavour.
