Becoming Futures Ready: How Philanthropy Can Leverage Strategic Foresight For Democracy

In 2022, the Democracy Funders Network launched the Better Futures Project and published Imagining Better Futures for American Democracy to urge democracy donors and practitioners to move beyond reaction and critique towards creation and change. The project seeks to provide succor and inspiration at a time marked by anxiety and fear, but also great possibility. The project challenges us to consider the future of our democracy as a dynamic system — not one that revolves solely around the next election — and to activate our collective agency and imagination. With consequential elections on the horizon, it is particularly important for pro-democracy actors to cultivate and hold a longer term, affirmative orientation even as, in the near term, attention and resources continue to focus primarily on electoral issues and democracy defense. The Democracy Funders Network, through its Better Futures Project, is publishing this toolkit to build the strategic foresight skills of individual and organizational democracy donors, and to expand this field’s capacity to think longer term and more boldly about the future of American liberal democracy. The toolkit provides practical applications of strategic foresight that can be incorporated into democracy donors’ philanthropic strategies and grantmaking practices. It also showcases recent examples of how donors have integrated strategic foresight into their operations. This toolkit benefited from conversations and interviews with strategic foresight practitioners and philanthropists, as well as a review of leading publications in the field of strategic foresight and futures thinking. Contents Navigating Rapid Societal Change Why Use Strategic Foresight in Philanthropy How to Deploy Strategic Foresight and Futures Thinking in Philanthropy. An Overview of Techniques Leveraging Foresight and Futures Thinking Internally. Organizational Structure and Culture Leveraging Foresight and Futures Thinking Externally. Communities of Practice and Thought Leadership Reaching The Next Frontier. Futures-Powered Grantmaking How to Successfully Harness Foresight and Futures Thinking. Enablers and Blockers