What is the RINGO Funder Action Pod?

The RINGO Fun­der Action Pod (FAP) has been con­vened with the Coun­cil on Foun­da­tions as a com­mu­ni­ty of fun­ders who are com­mit­ted to shift­ing pow­er and prac­tice.

Through­out the RINGO process, the role played by fund­ing and fun­ders has been promi­nent. The nature of fund­ing has a pro­found impact on the shape and form of civ­il soci­ety, the norms and behav­iours of those involved, deci­sion-mak­ing process­es and struc­tures, and the way in which dif­fer­ent types of civ­il soci­ety enti­ties relate to each oth­er.

Dur­ing 2021 and 2022, the Fun­der Action Pod par­tic­i­pat­ed in meet­ings, draw­ing out and dis­cussing the insights and ideas com­ing from Phase 1 of RINGO and iden­ti­fy­ing the impli­ca­tions for the fund­ing sec­tor.

Aims for the Funder Action Pod in 2023/2024

We are con­ven­ing a cohort of pro­gres­sive change agents from with­in dif­fer­ent fund­ing organ­i­sa­tions (phil­an­thropy and bilat­er­al donors) across geo­gra­phies and sec­tors in a trust­ful con­tain­er that enables open shar­ing and learn­ing.

• We will cre­ate a safe space to learn and take risks. ‘Chatham House Rules’ will apply to ensure con­fi­den­tial­i­ty, with peer sup­port from oth­er fun­ders.
• Joint­ly iden­ti­fy and unpack bar­ri­ers to change. We will pro­vide a struc­tured process to iden­ti­fy and unpack bar­ri­ers to change – both at the sys­tems lev­el and organ­i­sa­tion­al lev­el.
• Test­ing RINGO ideas and inno­va­tions. The RINGO process has already pro­duced nov­el mod­els and approach­es. We will joint­ly explore how mem­bers of the FAP can test (and scale) some of these inno­va­tions.

Who?

The FAP is designed for mem­bers of fund­ing organ­i­sa­tions with lever­age to test new approach­es and to affect change. They can be locat­ed any­where. It is suit­able for those who are com­mit­ted to tak­ing action, dri­ving change, and col­lab­o­rat­ing with oth­er fun­ders to achieve shared goals.

Why?

The FAP offers a space to explore how to act on the ‘local­i­sa­tion’, shift­ing pow­er and decoloni­sa­tion agen­da with oth­er peers. It is an oppor­tu­ni­ty to under­stand what you can prac­ti­cal­ly do in your respec­tive organ­i­sa­tion, but also what all FAP mem­bers can do col­lec­tive­ly to shift prac­tice at the sys­temic lev­el where bar­ri­ers are exter­nal to any one organ­i­sa­tion.

How?

Every ses­sion focus­es on one spe­cif­ic theme, for exam­ple: risk and com­pli­ance; account­abil­i­ty; inno­v­a­tive fund­ing mech­a­nisms. In each ses­sion we share the lat­est inno­va­tions emerg­ing on the respec­tive theme with prac­ti­cal exam­ples from the RINGO lab and beyond. We will then explore what fun­ders can do indi­vid­u­al­ly and col­lec­tive­ly to take these inno­va­tions for­ward, along­side how the fund­ing sec­tor can be influ­enced over­all.

When?

The FAP meets every 2 months for around 2 hours (online) between Sep­tem­ber 2023 and Sep­tem­ber 2024. Along­side these full-group ses­sions, we offer small­er facil­i­tat­ed peer coach­ing ses­sions for mem­bers who want to go deep­er on a cer­tain top­ic (e.g. intro­duc­ing new risk & com­pli­ance pro­ce­dures).

What support is offered?

• Care­ful­ly curat­ed con­tent on each trans­for­ma­tion area to pro­vide insight on what fun­ders can do to shift their prac­tice
• Cre­ative ses­sions with expe­ri­enced facil­i­ta­tors to iden­ti­fy oppor­tu­ni­ties for tak­ing imme­di­ate action
• Peer advice and encour­age­ment from oth­er fun­ders
• Light touch facil­i­ta­tion or coach­ing sup­port for small peer-groups or indi­vid­u­als who want to deep­en cer­tain top­ics and explore ideas in more depth.
• A safe online space to dis­cuss ideas and share infor­ma­tion with this com­mu­ni­ty

If you would like any more infor­ma­tion on the Fun­der Action Pod, please con­tact info@ringoproject.org

Pho­to by __ drz __ on Unsplash