What stimulates change?

A recent academic article by Jewlya Lynn and Julia Coffman called

Passing in the Dark: Making Visible Philanthropy’s Hidden and Conflicting Mental Models for Systems Change

Describe two mental models for systems change

Systems dynamics approach: (the most common mental model in philanthropy)

Understand the system and its dynamics

Identify leverage poi... See more

With the systems-emergence model, a general operating grant might be tied to a partner who shares an interest in systemic change, is values-and vision-aligned, and is working in adaptive ways.

Other foundations are applying one mental model during strategy development and another for evaluation and learning. In recent years, for example, more foundations have been doing systems-change work that falls solidly within the systems-emergence model. But the approach to reporting almost always is aligned with a systems-dynamics model.

Trust-based philanthropy can also use a systems-emergence orientation. But in this case, it is a question being explored alongside many others about the system and is not seen as a leverage point. Rather, it is a process of changing the relationship between funders and grantees and learning from those changes, which creates an environment where the... See more

Systems-emergence strategies grounded in equity will often explore power seeking to redis-tribute it, including “reckoning with the past” and its relationship to current power dynamics and harms (Petty & Leach, 2020, p. 77). As power shifts, the experiences of the newly empowered add to collective understanding about how power works in the syst... See more

Engage with those affected by problems in disruptive processes to surface innovations (e.g., through games, alternative histories to explore the past, or futures exercises). • Strengthen the reach and influence of narratives that emerge from communities, including through communications and mobilization (which differs from engaging in communication... See more

a systems-emergence philanthropic strategy might: • Find and tap into the “green shoots” of inno-vation, or the places where novel solutions are already being explored. Unlike a systems-dynamics model, this is not about finding best practices to scale — it is to learn alongside emerging ideas. • Fund underutilized or less explored parts of the syst... See more

Systems-emergence solutions are nonlinear and decentralized; change requires finding places to experiment within subsystems to shake them up and cause ripple effects (Boulton et al., 2015). Systems-emergence work does not attempt to describe the characteristics of a healthy system, but it often does describe the outcomes the system should be able t... See more