My Weeknote’s definitely came to a halt at the end of last year. Partly because of having so little time and space, partly because it’s felt much better to be quiet for a while. I’ve also hit a bit of a wall these last few weeks — have found it hard to do any work — have tried to rest, and then wondered if actually writing this might be helpful in giving me my compass for the next few months. It’s part looking back, and part looking forward.
I’m not sure what rhythm I’ll end up in going forward but…
On the 16th February we’ll be kicking off a series of Open Enquiries that link to our Civil Society Approach, looking to build a shared view of how communities and wider civil society can thrive.
These enquiries are for anyone working on, with, and in civil society or their local community. They’re designed for people who are willing to bring experience, knowledge, ideas and a sense of curiosity to the table.
We’ll be hosting the Open Enquiries twice a week, in Miro. Each session will broach, unpick and deepen our understanding of a particular theme — we’ll introduce you to…
I didn’t do an end of year blog for the first time in a long time. Partly because I felt a need for stillness and quiet , a time to go inward with my reflections on the year. And partly because I didn’t want to put anything out into the world at a time when there’s so many other things that need space for expression — loss, rage, pain, fear, mourning, and so much more.
I have felt more compelled to share where I am as I move forward into this new year, coming out of my mini hibernation, and…
Yesterday evening I sent out an email to our 52 Emerging Futures Fund grantees. I thought I’d share it here too, because it talks to some of the ways we’re thinking about growing the work this year.
You can read about all the Emerging Futures initiatives here. And this blog post gives a helpful overview of the programme and its intent.
Hello all
I hope that you are doing as well as possible in these times ❤️
This is a personal email from me, and sits alongside the other emails you may be getting from the wider team about sharing…
Designing for regenerative cultures and organisational endings.
When we published the first iteration of the Stewarding Loss work in early November, we knew there was a lot there. It was a large body of work in terms of research and content. Earlier this month we hosted an event specifically to talk through the different tools in more detail, in the hope we could help start to unpack them, gather feedback on them and see them being put in to practice.
Here is the video of the event. We hope it’s useful.
We’ve also updated the Stewarding Loss website with…
We’ve got a lot of new people joining or working with the UK Portfolio, which is great, both in terms of bringing in new thinking but also it means that there are more people to do the work!
Maddy has joined to work some of the week on the Climate Action Fund and some of the week on our policy and practice work.
Ashar is going to be working closely with Hannah generating evidence, learning and insights across our Participatory Grantmaking experiments.
Catherine, George and Will are working on the Emerging Futures Fund with us.
Back to a 3-weekly cycle, and am going to try and make these quick. I want to get off my screen and out into the wilds to shake off the week. By the way, I am 3 weeks behind on emails too — which is really not like me — but I have a lot going on. If I owe you an email, sorry.
I’ve already posted quite a bit over the last few weeks anyway. If you missed it, there was —
My talk at the FutureGov Transitions event.
The talk I gave at the Association of Charitable Foundations…
It was just over two years ago that I left my role as Strategic Design Director at Doteveryone and started my role at The National Lottery Community Fund, to run the Digital Fund on what was initially a 1 year contract. That was extended to a 2 year contract but 18 months in I started a new role running the UK Portfolio.
So what have I learned? It felt like a good time to step back and reflect.
The practice
I never imagined I’d be talking about foresight and futures so much
When Roland interviewed me for the On The Edge podcast last year, he asked me about my ‘futures practice’ and I remember…
2020 has been a year of unparalleled uncertainty. Our lives have been turned upside-down. Things we took for granted have changed in front of our eyes. We’ve all had to deal with unpredictability on an unprecedented level, to the extent that Oxford Dictionary’s word of the year is actually unprecedented. Our lives are weirder and more complex than ever.
This post was written by Ella, with input from me!
In our work, Cassie and I have both been tackling big societal challenges for decades and part of that has involved learning and practicing how to navigate, and to *be* in complexity. For years, academics and practitioners have been thinking about how to navigate complexity, developing useful concepts, insight and practices. …
“Dear Cassie, such an inspiring talk today at the ACF conference, thank you so much, I have learnt a great deal from you and got really motivated for my own project. Now I better understand in what direction to drive the European philanthropy community and how to facilitate the discourse”
“LOVED your ACF session — a breath of fresh air. Just what was needed.’
I started the session by using a slightly adapted version of the embodied dreaming journey I took people on back in February at my Service Design in Gov keynote.
“I’m going to now invite you to…
Cassie Robinson.
Deputy Director at National Lottery Community Fund, Co-founder of the Point People, Policy Fellow IIPP, Founder Stewarding Loss, International Futures Forum.
