Update From the Foundation
New Mission Statement and Guidelines
February 1, 2012
After a year of discussion and planning, in December 2011, the Compton Foundation board adopted a new mission statement:
We ignite change. We support transformative leadership and courageous storytelling to inspire action toward a sustainable, just, and peaceful future.
Our focus on igniting change communicates a sense of urgency and excitement, an impatience with things as they are, and a willingness to take risks to transform the world in which we live.
The work we expect to support will demonstrate innovative ways of understanding and naming the problems we face, as well as provide new methods for collaborating to solve them.
We focus on transformative leadership because we believe that a new way of leading social change work is necessary: one that is based on trusting relationships and shared values, collaborates through networks and coalitions with energy and ease, and values emotional intelligence as well as political and tactical skills.
We focus on storytelling because we believe there is a need for compelling new narratives about who we are, how we should live, and our purpose on this planet. We believe that culture must shift in order to make social and environmental change possible. Culture can only change when artists, writers, musicians, and other creative minds have the space to imagine and communicate, and to connect effectively with analysts and activists.
Starting today we are implementing an online “inquiry” process for organizations interested in sharing ideas that we can consider for a possible grant. We will no longer have specific deadlines for proposal submissions, and we will only invite full proposals from those inquiries that best match our program guidelines and offer the greatest potential for learning about our new fields.
Thank you for your patience as we have assessed and re-imagined how the resources of the Compton Foundation can best be used to foster the vision of its founders. We hope that our new focus will open up space for creative ways of working to advance the kind of change we all hope to see in the world.
With excitement and hope for the future,
Ellen
I have to admit that I felt ignited by reading the clarity of your opening “we ignite change”.
And i really respect the thinking that suggests we will better enable transformation when we work with leadership and processes that are themselves the result of transformed thinking (and being). To get the change we need to see in the world we need a level of creativity that requires us to work with the kinds of “creative practitioners” you are pointing to. And we need a NEW STORY to provide us the courage, clarity and commitment to get there.
So I say “go for it”!
This statement is a like a cool refreshing breeze on a hot, humid day.It’s when times are difficult that foundations most need to step up and create space for innovation rather than retrenchment. I love your focus on transformative leadership and storytelling and your new “inquiry” process is a positive departure from usual practice. Congratulations!
Fancy meeting you here. I was looking for a foundation that honors and encourages community transformation as change maker and ran into an old friend!
Thank you for your vision and courage to embrace it.