Accelerating our Impact: Philanthropy, Innovation and Social Change

Social change leaders and funders recognize that thinking comprehensively is essential:
piecemeal approaches will not work. Effective social change requires:
• a long-term commitment;
• a willingness to take risks;
• the ability to work across sectors and silos;
• investments in strategic research and policy analysis.
However, as with a focus on growth, the mere presence of these factors does not guarantee
success. Maximizing an innovative program’s potential for community engagement
and progressive impact calls for an understanding of how these factors are interrelated
and the role each plays in the highly dynamic process of social transformation.
Toward this end, there are two conceptual frameworks that we have found particularly
illuminating. One is the panarchy model of transformation in human and
ecological systems; the other is complexity theory. They serve as ways to think about
the context and dynamics of social change processes and the role that philanthropy
can play.
1.1
The Ecocycle or
Panarchy Model
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