A Systems Change Orientation to Climate Philanthropy
Funding to remedy the various effects of climate change is on the rise, and that’s unquestionably a positive development in the face of this existential challenge. But is that funding being directed in ways that can produce systems-wide, transformational change and what can we do differently to expedite action?
Those were the core questions at the heart of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors’ (RPA) interactive panel discussion, “A Systems Change Orientation to Climate Philanthropy,” at the 2024 Skoll World Forum in Oxford, UK. In hosting this event, RPA sought to support climate philanthropists in shifting practices and mindsets that will help them contribute to systems transformation.
The event was the latest in RPA’s Shifting Systems Initiative, an ongoing and evolving initiative that aims to shift philanthropic mindsets and practices in support of transformational systems change. RPA launched the Shifting Systems Initiative in 2016, and since its founding eight years ago, the initiative has encouraged funders to place longer-term, more adaptive resources with grantee partners to scale their solutions and impact and enable sustained, positive systems change. Over time, its steering group has included the Skoll Foundation, Ford Foundation, Porticus, Chandler Foundation, Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, and Jasmine Social Investments.
There is perhaps no global issue more interconnected, transversal, and ripe for a systems-level approach than climate change. With this knowledge, RPA gathered an expert panel of speakers from across the philanthropic sector to discuss nodes of interest as far-ranging as how comedy and art can shape climate narratives to the importance of strengthening women’s leadership in the climate change arena.
