‘Dear Funders…’: Accountability to future generations
Photo by Bryony Jade at Whose Future 2021
‘DEAR FUNDERS…’: ACCOUNTABILITY TO FUTURE GENERATIONS
Last month, I had the pleasure of being invited to speak at a panel as part of Next Frontiers Conference 2024, convened by Joseph Roundtree Foundation and other comrades from across the finance ecosystem to explore transformative approaches to wealth management and redistribution, philanthropy, and investment. The panel was hosted by Moira Sinclair, current CEO of Paul Hamlyn Foundation, and I was joined by Amira Hayat, Student, writer, poet, facilitator and activist and Sophie Howe, the first Future Generations Commissioner for Wales/ Welsh Government.
The topic was about Wealth Holder’s Accountability to Future Generations. How are we thinking about the unborn in this work? What are we seeing now, through our work at Rising, that tells the story of what young people in the future might need from us? What are the decisions that are being made now going to say about us as a society and our hopes for the future?
Moira Sinclair, Euella Jackson and Amira Hayat at Next Frontiers 2024
YOUNG PEOPLE AND THE FUTURE
When it comes to the future, young people in our community are bouncing on the pendulum between despair and hope, overwhelm and optimism, grief and joy. There’s a lot of grief, anger and overwhelm that comes with being forced to reject traditional notions of ‘the future’ due to the devastating polycrises that we are being faced with. We’re witnessing and feeling first-hand the impacts of the ecological crisis and violent political discourse globally about causes we deeply care about. Uncertainty in this way feels unanchoring, but I’ve also learned through Rising, that with that unanchoring, there can be hope.
At Rising we centre the ingenuity of marginalised young creatives to dream about how the world can be and ACTUALLY work towards making that happen. We use our agency as a catalyst for real change and practicing utopias in how we live and work. We create opportunities for young people to be wealth holders - not just financially (e.g last year we put over £50,000 into the hands of our community) but in other aspects of their lives - whether it be through holding positions of power (like trusteeships), or valuing and centring rest, reflection and play in their practices.
THE PROBLEM WITH FUNDERS
We have been candid about the colonial legacies of philanthropy and the role of funders indirectly perpetuating existing inequalities in our sector and society. While funders can be powerful enablers, the unequal power imbalances between funders and those they fund can skew the work if unaddressed. As an agency, we have very intentionally tried to build up a strong, youth-led agency offer to ensure we don’t have to be solely reliant on funders and can meet funders in partnership where we can be accountable to each other - but that’s still hard to do. Being funded in this current economy is a massive privilege (up until 2024, Rising had never had any core funding - shout out to Bristol City Council), but even so, there is a lot of in/visible labour that comes with it that can detract from ‘the work’. From changing remits, fixed timelines, unrealistic demands and competition, it can be easy to chase funders’ requirements instead of being led by the communities you work with.
When thinking about funders’ accountability to future generations, having a long-term view is paramount. We’re excited by funders who are able to be creative, bold, innovative and brave - who see their work as part of an ecosystem of change-making. We want to work with funders who deeply respect young people as equals and want to work in equitable partnership with them. We’re energised by the important work happening in the funding space to challenge and reimagine what is possible (e.g Lankelly Chase working to abolish itself), but more can be done by other wealth holders to drastically improve the lives of young people now and in the future. Here are some examples, inspired by our work:
DISTRIBUting wealth to address generational trauma and the processing of grief for young people right now
From the covid pandemic, multiple financial crises, the ecological crisis, global conflict, the list goes on - what we are witnessing is unprecedented and many of us (young people) are exposed to it constantly on our phones and social media. We need to funding and resourcing work that nurtures young people’s stewardship of the earth and the things that they care about. We are the future adults, so funders can be supporting future generations by equipping young people now to process and heal by using joy, pleasure and asset-based philanthropic approaches so we can tackle our uncertain futures head-on. This will ensure that we’re good adults for our children and don’t pass trauma on.
2. WORKING OUTSIDE CAPITALIST FRAMEWORKS
Funders could be doing more to move towards bolder and more holistic approaches to funding - away from seeing funding through an ‘investment’ / capitalist lens with returns or ‘outputs’. If you’re funding the deep work, then we may not see the fruits of this work in our lifetimes and that’s okay. So how do funders re-evaluate their relationship with risk and create processes that enable and celebrate trust, without need for evidence or ‘return’ on investment that burdens those you fund?
3. ENABLING YOUNG PEOPLE TO BE WEALTH HOLDERS AND DECISION-MAKERS
Genuinely stepping away from power and handing it over to young people, with no expectation or strings attached. By acknowledging that the governance structures you have are not fit-for-purpose - they were established to maintain the status quo and hoard power, what the future generations deserve is radically different - and doing the internal work to move towards alternatives that are genuinely liberatory and enabling.
4. HOLDING OTHER INDUSTRIES TO ACCOUNT
You can’t be neutral in this work, it’s inherently political (sorry, not sorry!). How can you work together to use your positionality to influence change, hold important conversations and use your wealth to make cultural shifts that actually support people and planet to thrive. What does accountability look like to you and what power can you leverage to make change happen urgently?
5. SUPPORTING ORGANISATIONS TO ACTUALLY CEASE TO EXIST
What would it look like if you supported organisations to genuinely fulfil their mission and make a long-term commitment to supporting them to do it? There’s always this weird dance for charitable organisations who claim to want to cease to exist, yet they’re unable to due organisational and governance structures and short-term funding. How might funding and philanthropy look different if it wasn’t based on short-term maintenance but working towards obsoleteness in the long-term?
6. NEW ISN’T ALWAYS BETTER
Instead of funding shiny, new projects, redirect this to fund what we already know works. When it comes to working radically, much of this stuff isn’t new - it’s more a matter of going back to indigenous practices or the old work of our ancestors. Get comfortable with (repeatedly) resourcing and sustaining the unsexy work that has been going on for decades and milennia. Get comfortable with not funding new projects and instead, think about sustaining the work already being done. The amount of labour organisations use trying to repackage their work into something new to fit funders remits - sometimes the organisation is the project - in its ever-changing glory. How might we resource them to intentionally and continually do the work?
THIS IS A LIFELONG COMMITMENT
We know that this is work is hard, but extremely worth-while. Rising is now heading off to our annual August of Rest - where we close the agency to public-facing work for the team to rest, reflect and get back to ourselves. We’ll be taking the time to deeply reflect on what more Rising can be doing for future generations, what our commitment is to the unborn and how we can equip young people right now to create equitable futures for everyone.
See you on the flipside 🌼 Hope you’re able to carve out time to rest and reflect too.
