The Environmental Funders Network’s Stepping Up series brings environmental leaders from outside philanthropy into conversation with funders and asks a simple question: what does this environmental, economic, political and societal moment ask of us?
Across the series there has been a common thread. The systems we live and operate within are struggling to respond to the challenges we face. They fall short in tackling inequality, climate breakdown and biodiversity loss. Guests have offered different perspectives on what comes next, ranging from fixing market failures and adapting to a changing climate through to more fundamental ideas about systems change and transformation.
When I spoke with Kate Raworth recently, the conversation covered all of that territory. Yet the thread that fascinated me was a practical one. It was about putting good ideas into action so that they are ready when people start looking for a different way forward.
Ideas awaiting their moment
During the conversation Kate quoted Milton Friedman:
“Only a crisis—actual or perceived—produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes politically inevitable.”
Milton Friedman
Her challenge to us was to question why you would leave ideas lying around when philanthropy could help get them up and running – to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible is ready to become the politically inevitable. Philanthropy can nurture ideas until their moment arrives, that moment when people open their eyes, recognise the need for change, and look around for a different way.
Ideas that are good enough
The team working with Kate at the Doughnut Economics Action Lab have a fabulous phrase that could be a useful thought prompt for us all. They ask themselves, “is it GENSET?” – is it Good Enough for Now? Is it Safe Enough to Try? It serves as a reminder that backing ideas takes a leap of faith, that not everything will work out, and it doesn’t have to be perfect to be an idea good enough to back.
It’s a wonderfully liberating concept that allows groups to have faith in their assets and capability – you may not know everything about the issue, you may not know what the outcome will be, but you can do your best. So often philanthropy, especially proactive philanthropy, can get stifled by a futile search for the ‘best’ place to direct precious resources. This can be especially challenging for the ever-increasing number of funders seeking to invest in systemic change. It’s impossible to change any system quickly, never mind interlocking complex ecosystems. And so it can feel overwhelming. But we can, each of us, contribute a little to the jigsaw in the spirit of GENSET – an idea that is Good Enough for Now and Safe Enough to Try.
“And the way I think about this is… there’s hope with its fingers crossed… Or there’s hope with its sleeves rolled up.”
Kate Raworth
Sharing ideas with laughter and joy
In a world where doom and gloom can feel never-ending some days, and books and reports are coming out of our sector’s metaphorical ears, it was so refreshing to hear Kate say that “instead of rewriting the book, what I’ve started doing is, circus.” Circus, how fabulous!
As I understand it (and I seriously hope EFN will take her up on the offer of bringing the circus to members!) Kate is on stage as the ringmaster. She calls up members of the audience to play various characters – for example someone representing the global finance system and another nature. Questions are explored with humour as well as deep emotions. Kate shared that there’s consistency in the emotions that audiences identify as driving finance’s endless need to accumulate – greed and fear first, then ego or power always surface.
“Humour is really powerful, I’m discovering, because you can talk about things. You can dive into issues that are sometimes are taboo, that you can just bring them as big characters on the stage and dive right in.”
Kate Raworth
Ideas are more likely to spread when people can engage with them, question them, laugh about them and make sense of them together.
And at the end of the circus, Kate reflects to the audience, that as their singing and laughter shows, together the room had the skills to put on a circus without even knowing that they could do that. She reflects: “It’s not a circME or a circYOU, it was a circUS”.
So much untapped potential is available to us, in each room, community, charity or funder. We have the assets, the resources, we can rise to the occasion together. We can step up to tackle GENSET ideas together.
If philanthropy has a distinctive role, perhaps it is not simply to fund ideas, but to help them grow strong enough to be ready for when their moment arrives.
WATCH | Stepping up: in conversation with Kate Raworth
EFN members can watch back the conversation with Kate. EFN members have been emailed the password to this recording. If you cannot find the password, please email us to get the password to view.