Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors Release Scaling Solutions toward Shifting Systems: Seeing, Facilitating, and Assessing Systems Change Report

Wednesday, July 22, 2020

Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors Release Scaling Solutions toward Shifting Systems: Seeing, Facilitating, and Assessing Systems Change  Report

Realizing that the world’s pressing challenges are becoming more complex, many philanthropic funders are reflecting on how to create more transformational impact. To help answer that question, the Scaling Solutions toward Shifting Systems initiative was launched in 2016 with representation from the Skoll, Ford and Draper Richards Kaplan Foundations, Porticus, and Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. Our goal is to examine when, how, and why certain solutions achieve system-level shifts and to share the lessons and recommendations from those successes.

2017 Findings: S.C.A.L.E.

The initiative’s first report, Scaling Solutions toward Shifting Systems, highlighted organizations that had scaled solutions and how funders had helped or hindered the process. In it, we detail our findings that funders can help grantees scale toward shifting systems by:

  • Streamlining processes for application and reporting;
  • Collaborating more effectively;
  • Accelerating impact through non-monetary support;
  • Learning more about systems change; and
  • Empowering grantees and by intentionally shifting the power dynamics between the givers and receivers of funds.

2018 Findings: Improving Practices and Embracing Collaboration

Our next phase of research, captured in the publication Approaches for Impact, Approaches for Learning,  sought to identify

  • How and why funders successfully moved from endorsing approaches identified in the first report to actually improving their policies and practices around those approaches; and
  • Key lessons from existing funder collaborative models aimed at systems change.

2020 Findings: Facilitation and Assessment

The newest publication Seeing, Facilitating, and Assessing Systems Change, focuses on how funders can design for and measure progress on systems change. Based on workshops in Kenya, Colombia, India and the United States, case studies, and evolving practices in the field of philanthropy, this publication also provides recommendations for:

  • How to better empower grantees through streamlining, collaboration and increased responsiveness.
  • When, how and with whom to share lessons.
  • The implications of funders exiting systems they have been supporting.
  • Recognizing and working with government and the private sector as partners in systems change efforts.
  • How mapping systems can help funders better develop robust theories of change.