The Funder’s Palette: A Spectrum of Approaches for Systems Change

Over the last several years, foundations have entered a new era defined by experimentation, adaptation, and a broader vision of what it means to create change. Philanthropy is evolving, and with it, the role foundations play. Increasingly, foundations are stepping beyond the work of funding nonprofit programs to explore how else they can influence the systems that shape communities. This is a moment full of possibility, and it calls for new thinking, new tools, and new ways of working together.

This effort was born from a simple question: How can foundations best contribute to equitable systems change? To answer that question, we examined some of the most compelling examples of systems change we know and looked for the common approaches, tools, and mindsets that enabled those successes.

This report is intended to help people working in philanthropy —staff, leadership, boards— better understand the full range of tools available to them. The research provides insights from on-the-ground practitioners who are changing systems, at-scale, in their communities. They include reflections from those who have increased graduation rates for foster youth, developed youth-led mental health programs, reduced toxic chemicals in cosmetics, transformed child welfare, addressed toxins is cosmetics, embedded brain development concepts into a regional early learning curriculum, defended local journalism, reduced maternal mortality, preserved Medicaid expansion in their state, halted evictions during COVID, and increased youth peer support. Through these stories, we see examples of how the following approaches have contributed to systems change.   

For each of these approaches, here’s what you’ll find in the pages that follow:

• Clear, updated descriptions of each approach
• Practical tactics foundations can implement through grant funding, staff efforts, and using their relationships and platform
• Real-world examples of foundations putting these tools into action