Catalyst Now

Tuesday is Day 2 of Catalyst Now Week 2026, focusing on Education and Youth, with regional sessions highlighting perspectives from Asia-Pacific.

Throughout the day, social innovators, educators, funders, and youth leaders will come together to explore new ideas, share experiences, and examine how education and youth engagement can contribute to lasting social change.

The Asia-Pacific sessions will bring regional perspectives and experiences into the wider conversation, creating opportunities to learn from different contexts and approaches to social innovation.

Join the conversation and explore the full Tuesday programme.

Find the full Tuesday schedule and register for sessions here: https://f.mtr.cool/zg4ht8ir7d

Monday, October 12th is the first day of Catalyst Now Week 2026 and we're focusing on Funding, Finance and Shifting Funding Paradigms!

To create lasting, systemic impact, we have to rethink how social change is resourced. True transformation requires moving beyond short-term funding of isolated projects and shifting toward flexible, long-term capital that strengthens the broader ecosystems enabling sustainable solutions.

Throughout Day 1, global social innovators, funders, and ecosystem builders are coming together to explore impact investment, participatory grantmaking, and capital models designed for scale.

Join the conversation and help shape the future of learning.
Explore the full Monday schedule and register for sessions here: https://f.mtr.cool/k2g1mtwu55

Coopera.coop Enda inter-arabe Africa Voices Dialogue

We’re living through a polycrisis that no single actor can solve alone.

In their Alliance Magazine article, Hanin Ahmed, Josie Fernandez-Marelli, and Nick Allardice explore what it would take for philanthropy to rise to this moment, not by doing more of the same, but by stepping into a fundamentally different role.

One that goes beyond funding individual solutions and instead strengthens the ecosystems that make solutions possible.

The infrastructure exists. The evidence exists. The capital exists. What’s missing is the collective choice and imagination to use them differently.

And that responsibility doesn’t sit with billionaires alone, it sits with all of us in the sector: to keep building systems worth trusting, and to ensure capital flows through them in ways that enable real, lasting change.

The Ecosystems Funders Council (EFC) is one example of this approach in action. It brings together philanthropists, social innovators and ecosystem builders who are working to shift how change happens towards collaboration, trust, and long-term systems thinking.

Instead of just funding solutions, we need to strengthen the ecosystems that allows solutions to emerge, connect, and scale.

Join the EFC: [email protected] and read the full article in the comments.

Catalyst Now Week is around the corner and this year is all about the power of collaboration, showing what happens when we step across borders, sectors, and languages to build real, lasting impact together.

During the week, we'll come together with thousands of social innovators to explore, learn, connect, and collaborate around:

🔸 Monday 12 October: Funding, Finance and Shifting Funding Paradigms. We'll explore impact investment, blended finance, and practical frameworks to redistribute accountability and scale sustainable solutions.
🔸 Tuesday 13 October: Education and Youth. Sessions focused on youth civic leadership, innovative learning models, and health initiatives, with a regional focus on Asia-Pacific.
🔸 Wednesday 14 October: Climate and Environment. Sessions showcasing local-led solutions, climate resilience, agroecology, and circular economy practices driving environmental sustainability, with a regional focus on Africa.
🔸 Thursday 15 October: AI for Social Innovation. We'll dive into AI for social innovation, EU funding opportunities, local infrastructure, and regional collaboration, with a regional focus on Europe and Latin America.
🔸 Friday 16 October: Sovereignty, Culture and Wellbeing. We'll examine cross-border youth leadership, systems change, and faith- and culture-driven approaches to impact, with a regional focus on North America and the MENA region.

Register Now: https://catalystnow.net/upcoming-events/?_type=cnw

One idea, in the right hands, changes everything.

Catalyst Now Sustainable Fashion Collaboration is proud to nominate our members for the Global Change Award 2027- partnering with H&M Foundation to fuel the next wave of pioneers. Ten early-stage changemakers will secure funding and support to slash greenhouse gas emissions across the textile value chain while accelerating social impact.

As nominators, we’re here to connect big potential with big support: €200,000 grants, a systems focused Changemaker Programme, and a powerful global network.

Let’s find the ideas the world needs. Know someone building the future of fashion?

Submit the form by October 1st 2026: https://f.mtr.cool/hw0lllh2ir
Join our Sustainable Fashion Collaboration: https://f.mtr.cool/ocmccdiscl

Family philanthropy is evolving: financial giving is no longer enough, younger generations want to see strategic impact

Arianna De Leo, Head of Philanthropy and Partnerships at UNICEF Italy, speaking to Elisa Battaglia Trovato of Professional Wealth Management, highlights that a clear shift is emerging: families are engaging with the impact sector in more intentional and strategic ways, across generations, geographies, and forms of capital.

At the centre of this shift are values, legacy, and long-term purpose. The clearer families are about the impact they want to leave, the more coherent and strategic their engagement becomes. But engagement is no longer only about financial giving. Families are contributing through expertise, advocacy, time, and networks, helping build more collaborative ecosystems for change.

Younger generations are accelerating this shift, bringing a stronger focus on purpose, impact measurement and alignment across philanthropy, investment and business while also reshaping how older generations engage. As a result, family philanthropy is moving from fragmented giving towards more aligned, system-wide engagement.

And this is something that the Ecosystems Founders Council (EFC) values and aims to leverage.The EFC aims to bring together philanthropists, families, and social innovators to work towards a more impactful, sustainable and durable funding ecosystem, one that will scale solutions with long lasting, global impact.

Join the EFC: [email protected] and listen to the full interview in the comments

What happens when social innovators turn isolated efforts into radical collaboration? That was the core focus of our sessions at AT ONE IMPACT WEEK 2026 in Singapore.

One insight stood out above all: business can—and must—be a life force for good. Across the globe, the solutions communities need already exist. What is missing is the connective tissue to help those working on systems change find one another, learn across perspectives, and design together.

Through our sessions on the power of global networks and redesigning business education, we explored how member-led initiatives—from local chapters in Singapore and India to regional collaboratives like RAFT-APAC and ASEAN Rising—are building this critical infrastructure.

A warm thank you to our speakers and leaders Karen Spencer, Sumathy Krishnan, Shama Karkal, and Chien Yuan David Chen for driving these crucial conversations.

Our heartfelt gratitude to our hosts NO.17 Foundation and Tsao Pao Chee (TPC) for creating such a generous space for collective action.

The solutions are here. Now we need the collective courage to act on them.

Some of the best ideas start with the right people around you.

Catalysts for Climate is a global collaboration of over 100 members from more than 35 countries, working to amplify Global South leadership in global policy spaces. We bring together social entrepreneurs, experts, and practitioners scaling locally-led climate solutions, shifting the narrative from "vulnerability" to solutions-driven leadership.

Every month, changemakers come together across food systems, climate and health, disaster response, circular economy, and climate learning to build connections, share real solutions, explore scaling and partnerships, and push for change together. In August, one line from our circular economy session stuck with us: "Change doesn't begin with 1,000 people. It begins with one person."

Maybe you're deep into an innovative climate solution already. Maybe you're just getting started. Either way, there's a seat for you.

Sessions happen monthly, on the first Tuesday, at 15:00 CEST. Collaboration happens continuously in between. And if you have an innovative climate solution and want to scale it, there's a space to feature it at our thematic action pods sessions.

Submit this form to present your climate solution: https://f.mtr.cool/s2m97vyh6j

Join the collaboration: https://f.mtr.cool/03j7rwt4jn

Can we transform systems by changing the stories we tell?

In our latest article on Medium, author Amina Mohamed (Founder of Cameras For Girls) shares how shifting away from extractive storytelling can change power dynamics, donor expectations, and whole systems from the ground up:

♦️ Reframing Agency: Instead of outsiders deciding what is compelling, storytelling begins with relationship, consent, and shared authorship.
♦️ Shifting from Rescue to Support: Moving away from savior narratives to stand alongside capable individuals navigating systemic barriers.
♦️ Rewriting the Narrative: Training young women in media spaces to document lived experiences through resilience, creativity, and dignity, rather than poverty alone.

The takeaway? Storytelling isn’t just a comms strategy - it’s a leverage point. When we change what we show, we change what gets funded.

Authors: Amina Mohamed
Peer-reviewed & Edited by: Bridgette Kyalimpa, Ivo Arrey Mbongaya

Read the article in English: https://f.mtr.cool/zwajr4gsw4
Find the article in Arabic, French, Spanish and Portuguese in the comments