In the very first episode of season 4, Tim and Kerrin sat down with Trista Harris, President of FutureGood, which is a consultancy dedicated to assisting visionaries in shaping a brighter future. Having worked in the social sector since she was 15 years old, she has spent a lot of time working in places that are dedicated to serving the community, something that she credits her mom for involving her in. Over the years she’s grown in her service, having been a program officer for foundations, working in community foundations, leading Minnesota's community of grant makers among many other accomplishments. She now runs her consultant group FutureGood, and digs into the futurism of philanthropy - looking into what signals of the future exist in the present, and how to act on them.

Part of the nature of futurism is best put by Trista herself:

“I think the big challenge in our sector is that we don't know what success looks like, we haven't really thought about if we a hundred percent met our mission, what would the community look like 20 to 30 years from now? What would be different as a result of our work? And so we helped our grantees do that. And as a result of that work in the next couple of years, they had 10 legislative wins, which was the most in our organization's history. Things like first in its country, homeowners bill of rights to deal with the mortgage foreclosure crisis. We had alternative teacher certification to diversify our state's teaching force, and then we had marriage equality in the state of Minnesota. So it really lit this spark in me that people that do good for a living, these are the tools that should be in their hands. And it isn't just for professional futurists like me, it's for all of us to learn these skills and implement them in the issues and communities that we care about”

Double clicking on the futurism angle, naturally Tim and Kerrin sought to ask Trista what her predictions would be for this upcoming year in philanthropy and what trends to keep an eye on going forward into 2024. Trista looks this year as one of transformation and change. With all the chaos of democracy in jeopardy, school shootings, and COVID - there is a level of stress in society. And on top of that, fundraising has been a challenge for organizations. It’s a lot of change, one that humans are necessarily prepared for, As she states, “when I talk to leaders in the field, what I often hear from them is I feel like I'm so behind. I feel like I'm so stressed out. If I could just get to the bottom of my email inbox, everything would be fine. What they're not realizing is that this is just the pace of change in society at this moment.” She goes on to say that the human brain is not really made for the world we live in today and it’s no wonder we are all stressed out and wish for calmer days of the past.

Read the full article about future of philanthropy by Tim Lozier at Fluxx.