Two years ago, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors (RPA) convened a small group of leaders from various global philanthropies and nonprofits in Turin, Italy, for the inaugural convening of its Foresight & Futures Initiative to create future-ready philanthropy. What started at that gathering, called a beehive by RPA, has become one of the most ambitious experiments in long-term thinking in the global philanthropic sector.

Who decides and shapes our futures? What could more adaptive, equitable, and future-ready philanthropy look like? And what are the practical steps to get there?

Those have been some of the questions guiding the work of the Foresight & Futures Initiative, which has met four more times in person—most recently in Copenhagen, Denmark, earlier this month, marking the close of the first phase of this pioneering work.

At the outset of the initiative’s journey, RPA’s goal was to bring a long-view discipline and sharper futures thinking to philanthropy’s strategic planning work, creating and implementing future-ready philanthropy.

"The impetus behind launching this work was a sense that philanthropy’s business-as-usual ways of approaching strategies and impact were falling short, particularly given the current challenges facing humanity. What was often treated as unforeseen crises were in reality overlooked solutions. We wanted to enable philanthropy and the broader ecosystem to be less reactive and more anticipatory, to develop and hone sharper futures thinking and futures-intentional strategic trajectories," VP of Inquiry and Insights Olga Tarasov, who leads the Foresight & Futures work at RPA, said.

"In this work, we also wanted to supplement strategic foresight with non-western, unconventional futures methodologies, in order to spark mindset and behavioral shifts. To do so we intentionally centered the question that is core not only to our efforts by to the purpose and mission of philanthropy: Who decides and shapes future-ready philanthropy? After all, effective foresight cannot be one dimensional. It cannot be done in silos or shaped through the limited lenses of mostly male, white, Global North institutions and practitioners. It requires inputs rooted in broad, geographically and culturally diverse perspectives. Futures brings the texture, context and lived experiences that are too often excluded, helping us not only see weak signals more clearly but see them from the perspective of communities that are living them."

Read the full article about future-ready philanthropy by Elika Roohi at Alliance Magazine.