2022 – This publication is part of the Shifting Systems Initiative launched in 2016 by a number of philanthropic organizations and Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, and a Steering Group that over time has included the Skoll Foundation, Ford Foundation, Porticus, Chandler Foundation, Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, and Jasmine Social Investments. The initiative’s aim is to encourage funders to place longer-term, more adaptive resources with their grantee partners to scale their solutions and impact and enable sustained, positive systems change by shifting the conditions that hold problems in place. Its mission has remained consistent over its lifetime: to examine when, how, and why certain solutions achieve system-level shifts, and to share the lessons and recommendations from those successes.
This report is a collection of the themes, topics, conceptual frameworks and actionable resources that can enable funders to create equitable processes and practices, and to embed equity as a core principle and building block of systems change. This publication aims to be a meaningful contribution towards moving the practice of philanthropy away from its inequitable origins and practices, and towards more equitable practices that will ultimately enable it to shift power and systems.