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Illuminate Luminary Fund | Illuminate

Illuminate Luminary Fund

Request for proposal: deadline 9/15

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 invite proposals for $10,000 for each inquiry/learning community

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

Who we are: Our collaborators

Turtle Island Institute
McConnell Foundation
Emergence Collective
Systems Sanctuary
Mastercard Foundation
CoCreative
School for Systems Change
LankellyChase Foundation
CKX (Community Knowledge Exchange)
RWJ Foundation
Institute for Strategic Clarity
Chandler Foundation
Pisces Foundation
Inner Activist
Catalyst 2030
Omidyar Group
Garfield Foundation
Academy for 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 will prioritize:

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.’

Please fill out the google application form here.

Deadline: September 15, 2021Posted Thu, August 5