Request for proposal: Illuminate Luminary Fund
What is Illuminate?
A collaborative network committed to cultivating the field and practice of systems change towards a just, equitable and regenerative future for all.
Our aim is to facilitate connectivity that leverages existing resources, practice and experience in a nimble, light way. We create opportunities to connect field builders, learn from each other and use our collective power to advance systems practice and engage and support the development of many more practitioners.
Why should I listen?
The Illuminate network is growing. We have leveraged our collective networks to engage more deeply and more internationally, to meet the needs of the emerging field of systems change in its many expressions and practices.
This is an invitation to join Illuminate at a pivotal stage and contribute to our shared learning and inquiries. We invite you to submit a proposal specifically in one of two areas:
New Systems Change Learning Communities: Regional or thematic communities of practice in new geographic locations (outside of the UK, US and Canada)
New Edgy Inquiries: Inquiries about the edges of the field of systems change practice
We invited proposals for $10,000 for each inquiry/learning community and awarded 8 applicants.
The application period is now closed.
Background
The “dominant” and “formal” field and practice of systems change has been historically occupied by white, academic, western ways of knowing, being, and doing. And much of our current network is centered around the UK, US and Canada.
As a network, we recognize that there are many ways into the work of systems change, including movement building, social justice and change, facilitation and through many lineages of practice and experiences. We intend to expand our community and to create communities of learning and inquiry from multiple contexts and locations.
We want to make new friends, meet new colleagues to help us learn more collectively about what works and what doesn’t in systems change practice.
We want to build the Illuminate network by engaging in live inquiries.
Our objectives:
Connect the field of systems change
Illuminate practitioners and thought leaders who are working on the edges of the current field
Support and share learning across the field of systems change
Advance practice of systems change
Strengthen the learning and integration of equity, justice, and systems change
More specifically
New Systems Change Learning Communities (Node)
Regional communities of practice and inquiries in new geographic locations (outside of UK, US and Canada)
You have identified a gap in the systems change field and you want to convene a group of systems change practitioners regionally to support learning and advance the field of practice.
We would love to find people/formations who are passionately experimenting with the tools and frameworks of systems change practice in regions outside of the US and the UK
Illuminate has several other nodes focused on connecting systems change capacity builders, funders, and curriculum in academia. Examples of current nodes in the network: River Delta Capacity Builders, Funders node, Curriculum node.
We’d love to know - what are the live questions about how to do systems change in your region? How widespread is the practice?
With the $10k we will invite you to convene friends, colleagues and other stakeholders in your world who are also passionate about creating the conditions for systems change and create gatherings to strengthen and relationships between you
We are open-minded about what this could look like and would love to hear your ideas
You, as leader of the node will be invited to the Learning cohort in Illuminate, where we convene all the leaders of the nodes around the project to stop, reflect and build relationships together to make collective sense of what we’re learning about systems change
You will build your international network and have seed money to build your network locally
We are looking for people who already have a mental list of people to convene at your first gathering.
New Edgy Inquiries:
Inquiries about the edges of the field of systems change practice
You have a field level question that you know others are asking and will help advance the field and practice of systems change.
Examples include: what is the role of bridging in systems change from non-dominant locations? What is the relationship between healing self and healing systems?
Systems change is an emerging field of practice with a growing number of tools and frameworks which can be helpful in different contexts
You will have a burning question - that you have a hunch (or actually you know) would generate unique insight about systems change
You might not call yourself a systems change practitioner, but your work is all about using different methods to create meaningful systemic change
You, as leader of the node will be invited to the Learning cohort in Illuminate, where we convene all the leaders of the nodes around the project to stop, reflect and build relationships together to make collective sense of what we’re learning about systems change
You will build your international network and have seed money to build your network locally
We are looking for people who already have a mental list of people to convene at your first gathering.
Our selection process
We prioritized:
applicants from diverse communities and contexts outside of the usual actors in the emerging systems change field.
Communities and inquiries that have a clear integration of equity and justice across their proposal.
Criteria
You are a systems change leader with the capacity to convene other systems change leaders and practitioners
You are working in a community that would benefit from convening and learning
You are able to convene a group of practitioners from your network of at least 30 people who would come if you asked them to explore questions about how to shift systems in service of equity and justice and a regenerative future for all. We recognize that people might not call it ‘systems change.’
Deadline: September 15, 2021
The application period is now closed.
Application questions:
Are you proposing to convene a new node or to convene an inquiry?
About you and your work
Tell us about who you are, how you identify and how you are located in the systems you are working in?
What is your gift to systems change and where did you get if from?
What is the context of your work and the communities you are working in/with?
If this is a collaborative application, tell us about your partners.
Tell us about the systems you are working to shift.
Tell us about your experience in systems change.
About your proposed learning community
What is the learning community or the inquiry you are imagining?
What do you hope to learn about or to advance through this learning community?
Why is this community necessary? What problem are you hoping to solve?
Who would you like to invite into this node/inquiry?
How are justice and equity integrated into the community/inquiry and process you are hosting?
What are the current objectives of the learning community
What methods, processes or structures do you intend for this community?