Catalyst Grants

Def­i­n­i­tions: Con­di­tions of Sys­tems Change

• Prac­tices: Espoused activ­i­ties of insti­tu­tions, coali­tions, net­works, and oth­er enti­ties tar­get­ed to improv­ing social and envi­ron­men­tal progress. Also, with­in the enti­ty, the pro­ce­dures, guide­lines, or infor­mal shared habits that com­prise their work.
• Resource Flows: How mon­ey, peo­ple, knowl­edge, infor­ma­tion, and oth­er assets such as infra­struc­ture are allo­cat­ed and distributed.
• Poli­cies: Insti­tu­tion­al and orga­ni­za­tion­al rules, reg­u­la­tions, and pri­or­i­ties that guide the entity’s own and oth­ers’ actions.
• Rela­tion­ships & Con­nec­tions: Qual­i­ty of con­nec­tions and com­mu­ni­ca­tion occur­ring among actors in the sys­tem, espe­cial­ly among those with dif­fer­ing his­to­ries and viewpoints.
• Pow­er Dynam­ics: The dis­tri­b­u­tion of deci­sion-mak­ing pow­er, author­i­ty, and both for­mal and infor­mal influ­ence among indi­vid­u­als and organizations.
• Men­tal Mod­els: Habits of thought — deeply held beliefs and assump­tions and tak­en-for-grant­ed ways of oper­at­ing that influ­ence how we think, what we do, and how we talk.

Source: The Water of Sys­tems Change

Addi­tion­al sys­tems change resource: Lead­ing Sys­tems Change with Peter Senge

Sys­tems change is the ​“north star” of Cat­a­lyst grant­mak­ing impact. The Com­mu­ni­ty Foun­da­tion rec­og­nizes that sys­tems change takes time, part­ner­ships, and resources, and that it comes in iter­a­tions. We are pleased to part­ner with local orga­ni­za­tions in var­i­ous stages of sys­tems change work.

Cat­a­lyst pri­or­i­tizes fund­ing for com­pelling, high-impact pro­pos­als in the fol­low­ing order:

1. Sys­tems change work
2. Inno­va­tion with­in a system
3. Work that is crit­i­cal to meet a press­ing com­mu­ni­ty need (though pos­si­bly not sys­tems changing)