Core to all of Illuminate’s work is the concept of building relationships and capacities to shift the field. Instead of academic research and theory, we shine a light on systems practitioners beyond the ”usual suspects,” who weave together systems change with diverse disciplines, cultures, lineages, and ways of knowing. Illuminate centers practitioners from the Global South, Indigenous and frontline communities, and others practicing holistic systems approaches.

The Funder Node follows these same principles, but with an explicit focus on creating a community of funders. The space will be designed around relationships and the room to talk about burning questions that may not be possible to address in your day-to-day work. Funders will get to know other funders, will learn from brilliant systems practitioners, and the focus will be on your own practices while building community to help you have greater impact.

The design responds to what we heard through interviews with 25 funders, with requests like:

— “There’s a tension between demonstrating impact and the fact that systems change is very hard to show over a short period of time. There’s the contribution, attribution question. We have to have the tools to show there’s been progress towards something and has value in impact language.”

— “It would be interesting to be in a conversation with other funders at a deep level. Crossing with personal and work related. To build a sense of community and trust and deepening together.”

— “(I’d love it if) you don’t have to show up with your ‘know it all’ persona. There is a culture of trust and support. No dumb questions.”

To join the Funder Node, we ask that you be actively working to distribute funds as either a grant maker or a donor in one of two contexts:

• Your institution provides financial support to systems change efforts in a place, nation, or globally.

• Your institution provides financial support to a set of grantee organizations in a designated field or a specific region who work collaboratively to understand and transform a specific system.

In other words, the space will be designed for funders who already understand the basics of systems change and who have practiced systems approaches for long enough to share experience, challenges, successes, and curiosities with each other.

Rather than an open invitation webinar series, we are cultivating a smaller group of individuals (aiming for 10-20) who desire a space for honest dialogue, reflective conversation, and mutual support. With the generous support of Illuminate’s funding partners to date, we are able to offer this conversation series for a minimal suggested registration fee, which covers just the cost of technology and documentation of the process.

FEE: $300 per person

2022-2023 Registrants, pay registration fees here

We ask that your commitment be primarily one of time - making a best effort to attend the entire series so that the group can benefit from an ongoing, deepening conversation with a set of committed colleagues.

The series will consist of 3 learning webinars and 3 participatory dialogue opportunities:

1. Three 90-minute interactive webinars that include speakers, a focal topic, and opportunities to process with others on the call

2. Three 60-minute dialogues, each dialogue will take place 2-3 weeks after the webinars and be focused around a guiding question. Participants will come into the dialogue with reflections on that question from their own work context.

3. (Opt in) For those interested, we will also organize buddy conversations that will allow deeper conversation with a peer

To ensure consistency in the group and a conversation that can deepen over time, we ask that you be able to commit to at least 5 of the 6 group gatherings:

• November 16, 2022 Webinar (90 min)

• December 6, 2022 Dialogue (60 min)

• February 7, 2023 Webinar (90 min)

• February 28, 2023 Dialogue (60 min)

• May 2, 2023 Webinar (90 min)

• May 17, 2023 Dialogue (60 min)

All group calls will begin at 9:00am PST / 12:00pm EST.

In June, we will schedule an optional next steps brainstorm and design conversation for any funder who wishes to carry on in the Illuminate Funder Node.