From collaboration to co-creation: shaping possible futures

Faced with the deeply interconnected challenges of our time, what is our potential role as (community) foundations in actively shaping potential equitable solutions? This year at Alpbach Forum, I participated in a future thinking workshop with 30 other people from the philanthropic world. Here, we were asked to think and imagine a desirable time ahead, the collaborative measures to reach it, and our unique role as philanthropic institutions.
 

The scenario we discussed was where states shifted their budgets from climate actions toward security. Leaving aside the potential solutions we came up with, I want to share some exciting considerations and threads I would take home.
 
Firstly, people's and communities' insights and buy-in were essential for every emerging idea. Without grounding solutions and getting consensus among people, no sustainable transformational change can be achieved. And while for big philanthropic organisations this might be challenging, given that they often focus on wide geographical areas or specific broad topics, community foundations are best placed to engage and involve individuals and communities on the ground, leveraging their long-established social capital and their convening power.

Secondly, the conversation shifted immediately from the concept of collaboration to co-creation. Rather than jumping immediately into solutions, where most of the time every actor brings their idea and is reluctant to let go, the group agreed we must set a common understanding of the problem and our ambitions. In this framework, I see a huge potential for community foundations to be agent able to create a space and facilitate this kind of ambitious conversations and shared goals building in their communities.

Thirdly, whatever solution is found needs to be tested before being scaled up. Territories serve as unique centres where we can explore these ideas, allowing us to take bold steps in pursuing systemic solutions that tackle the fundamental causes of societal issues. In this co-creative approach, community foundations, deeply connected to their local areas, can act as influential partners and democratic forces in the quest for scalable systemic responses.

In addition to this insightful workshop, Alpbach Forum offered a wide menu for curious minds, including curated hiking sessions, deeply immersive moments, and fruitful talks.

During these days, I joined the "Youth as Catalysts for Change" session, during which we walked across a beautiful wood, listening to inspiring stories of young changemakers. Among the voices heard, Rebekka Dober, following the motto "If it is about them, don't do it without them," is bringing Austrian youth's voices into the spaces where decisions are made about their future. She has a board of 8 people aged between 14-20 years old that she refers to as her "bosses," the people to whom she is accountable.

The panel reinforced my conviction and gave me more ideas about our work at ECFI, which is focused on amplifying and strengthening community foundations' efforts to foster youth participation in their communities and organisations. It invited me to further question and enhance how things are done and overcome the paradigm that young people are the leaders of the future, as the future starts now.

Francesca Mereta

Peer Learning and Communications Expert, ECFI

August 2024