An urgent invitation to shift funding practices - enabling systems change

As one of the signatories of the open letter “An Urgent Invitation To Shift Funding Practices” from Catalyst 2030, we urge more donors to address the root causes of complex problems instead of treating the symptoms. By altering our way of working, we can transform practices, mindsets and power dynamics and achieve lasting impact.

The letter An Urgent Invitation To Shift Funding Practices from Catalyst 2030 urges donors to start addressing root causes of complex problems instead of treating symptoms. To do that we must work together to transform practices, customs, mindsets, power dynamics, policies and resource flows to achieve lasting impact in a population. This is what we call Systems Change.

With our way of working with systems change, we challenge traditional practices within development work, aiming to shift the power to those with lived experiences of the complex human systems we are aiming to transform. We are moving the needle towards Inclusive Societies in communities where fashion is made, by co-creating holistic development and catalyzing collaborations for systems change, using the Collective Impact method .

“We call upon philanthropic sector leaders and different types of funders to commit to adopting all of these principles in meaningful ways within their organisations, so that our shared commitment and ability to achieve lasting social change is accelerated.”

/GO Call-to-Action Open Letter by Catalyst 2030 – “An Urgent Invitation to Shift Funding Practices”

Sustained collaboration is one of the most important elements of initiatives driving systems change. Some of the main principles suggested by Catalyst 2030 when funding this kind of initiatives are:

• Give multi-year and unrestricted funding, if possible. If only restricted funding is feasible, make sure to fund not only the direct project costs, including salaries, but also indirect costs, such as rent, office expenses, and even a surplus for building reserves.
• Fund capacity building activities for your partners, along with networks for shared learning.
• Simplify grant application and reporting to ease the admin burden on the implementing partners
• Acknowledge power relations and implementing practices to shift them by creating a strong relationship with your partners that goes beyond funding.
• Create platforms for bringing the people with lived experience of a social problem to the decision table, so they become the primary actors of the initiatives. Fund organisations with local leadership and ownership.

H&M Foundation has already implemented these principles in our funding practices and will continue to refine them as we move ahead. Join us here .