Searching for the North Star or how to navigate a boat with a fixed rudder through turbulent times

Abstract

This piece of work aims to connect the governance and leadership levels of foundations with the demand to respond to the societal poly-crisis. Challenges such as climate change, migration, demographic development and economic debts cannot be solved on the level of a single country and, thus, call for joint action. Given the inherent independence of foundations, an analysis of how foundations can strengthen their contribution to solve the global poly-crisis has to begin with the single organisation, its purpose and its leaders. However, how feasible is it to evolve, transform even, governance and leadership in philanthropic organisations, which are often considered rather rigid and inflexible organisations? Based on arguments on governance and leadership of foundations from both the academic and the public debate, we formulate four propositions on how foundation leaders can adapt their foundation to the current societal situation. The propositions include aspects such as transparency, empowerment, sensemaking and leadership support.