4 minute read
Preface
Global climate change challenges. Homelessness. The balance between cities and rural areas. Social inclusion. These are examples of complex challenges currently facing society, in which more and more philanthropic organisations in Denmark and abroad have become involved in recent years.
A great deal of philanthropic work is carried out as classic philanthropy driven by applications. This is an essential tool which contributes significant value to society and quality of life. It is also important, however, to test new ways and new tools of a more strategic and catalytic kind – and collect the knowledge generated by them.
The complexity of some of today’s complicated societal challenges calls for long term partnerships between many professions and institutional partners and, not least, new ways of collaborating – across sectors on systemic, national, and local levels.
In 2014, Realdania launched several projects and partnerships based on the Collective Impact method, which was developed in North America. Collective Impact is a systematic and data-based approach to working with complex agendas within broad, long term partnerships. Overall, Realdania has tested the method through three broad, long term partnerships dealing with different subjects. At the end of 2022, the last of these Collective Impact partnerships, Sustainable Landscapes of the future (Fremtidens bæredygtige landskaber), ended their work, having created significant results. Over the same period, Realdania and a number of other foundations have built on their experiences with Collective Impact over a range of complex fields – and at Realdania we will continue to do so.
With this publication we wish to follow up on some of the experiences from our own initiatives and those of other foundations, targeting system changing partnerships within complex agendas. In seven cases we have interviewed key actors to register their testimony about how they have experienced being part of our collaborations. We have reflected on the whole process and thematised interconnected learning across different arenas.
Our goal has not been to evaluate, but to contribute to cross-sectoral reflection on experiences and key areas of learning. This benefits everyone working with the difficult challenges facing society – not only are these challenges complex, but equally complex is solving them. Together.
Jesper Nygård CEO, Realdania
During the last decade, various philanthropic agencies have arrived on the Danish stage, and are increasingly participating in the emerging practice of working for systemic change as a means of addressing the complex challenges we are facing as a society.
Realdania has aimed directly at working for systemic change through broad, cross-sector alliances inspired by the Collective Impact method and has become one of the pioneers in Denmark. The background for this collection of case stories is therefore a desire to harvest Realdania’s eight years' experience of working within the Collective Impact framework, while simultaneously remaining curious about the experiences of other foundations in the Danish context.
Purpose
Although we have long been aware of many extremely complex problems that are not easily solved, there is still a mismatch between the complexity of the challenges and the way we attempt to solve them as a society. The problems persist because they transcend the standardised procedures of the welfare state and cannot solved by isolated approaches or reforms within existing institutional silos or sectors.
The purpose of this publication is to contribute insights from and into selected Danish examples of long-term approaches to complex problem areas. There is a need for insights into Danish cases. Not least because the case literature arising from processes of change inspired by Collective Impact reflects a North American context which in many ways is clearly different from the Danish context.
It has been our priority to listen to those who have been, or are still active in terms of making efforts for change. Thus, the publication contains many testimonials in the shape of quotes from the interviews carried out in a period of six month. Five of the examples are from Realdania’s philanthropic work; in addition, The Bikuben Foundation and The Lauritzen Foundation each contribute an example of Collective Impact efforts.
The seven examples have been carefully chosen and purposefully represent different geographical contexts and different (complex) issues – from climate and the environment to social agendas. They are differentiated in terms of scale, ranging from contexts limited to a single municipality to efforts on the regional and national scale.
Structure
We begin by selecting seven transversal themes from the publication's seven examples. These are not conclusions or recommendations based on the cases, but rather selected characteristics of the processes and collaboration that the cases represent. A kind of summary.
Next, we present a brief overview of selected theoretical understandings of complex problems and systemic change, aiming to contribute to an overall backdrop and framework of understanding about systemic change that can illustrate the complexity of, and provide reflections for understanding, the work in practice, which is subsequently presented. This section can be skipped if you are most interested in reading the cases.
The seven cases form the main body of the publication. We begin with a figurative overview of the main characteristics of the examples before treating them in depth, one by one. With varying emphasis, the case descriptions include insights into the nature of the problem, the start-up phase, the way the work was organised, successes, core learning and results.
Finally, we identify learning points in respect of the role played by philanthropic actors in the initiatives. We hope that this chapter can contribute to ongoing conversation about whether and how foundations in Denmark can support the joint effort of tackling current and future complex societal challenges.
Methods
The collection of case stories is based on desk research and interviews with key players from the seven cases presented. We have also interviewed several researchers and experts in the field and have consulted with those involved in the system innovation initiative at the ROCKWOOL Foundation's Intervention Unit, who are among the leaders in the field, both nationally and internationally.
The report concludes with an overview of all interviewees and informants.
We are very grateful to all those who have pitched in and contributed to making this collection of case stories possible.
