Here we are, coming to the end of 2022. This year has been a seminal one for ChangemakerXchange , we have passed some really key milestones in our own journey, and we believe it’s essential to close it by taking a pause to look back, appreciate, and celebrate what we’ve collectively accomplished over the year.

To do so, we will walk you through our three ‘strategic pillars’ which each contribute to the fulfillment of ChangemakerXchange’s vision and mission.

We envision a world where everyone is part of inclusive communities in which people connect deeply and co-create positive action to serve the wellbeing of people and planet.

We are on a mission to provide safe, supportive, fun, and empowering spaces for changemakers. We foster profound and lasting connections, nurture wellbeing, and enable peer-learning and meaningful collaborations so that changemakers may create, sustain and scale positive change.

We hope this blog post will inspire you to also take a step back, appreciate any of these accomplishments you were a part of, and celebrate your own changemaking journey!

So, right away, here it is: ChangemakerXchange in 2022, across our key pillars.

Pillar 1: ChangemakerXchange Community

Through the ChangemakerXchange Community, we reach and work directly with ± 1000 changemakers across 130 countries globally. New members join via our flagship summits, a unique experience of connecting, co-learning, and collaborating with other social innovators from the region. This is then followed by ongoing, and life-long, community engagement, capacity building, and support for their work.

• Online Co-Creation Summit

We kicked off the year by hosting an online Co-Creation Summit, which has always been an intense and beautiful process where community members gather to shape the direction of the community. It is a testament to the community-led principle we hold on to since day one when the community started—and this one was no exception.

This year, 60+ community members from different parts of the world participated to brainstorm on how to collaborate to bring our vision into manifestation. We came up with several ideas, some of which have been executed and are mentioned below.

• Secret Buddies | Wellbeing & Burnout Edition

Since 2021, we have run a special activity to foster connection amongst our community members, ‘Secret Buddies’. It brings together members in pairs from across the world whilst maintaining anonymity. Over 100 people have participated, and many describe it as a truly unique experience of developing a genuine connection with another human being who has no judgments, no prior knowledge, no emotional baggage with them, and vice-versa.

This year, we ran a special edition: Wellbeing & Burnout edition, allowing the participants to reflect on the root causes of burnout and practice ways to boost their wellbeing.

On a similar note, perhaps you’re looking for some resources on wellbeing or other resources related to our new way of working (which we’re really proud of!), we collect some of the best knowledge, processes, and toolkits we have built over the years in one page—see the link below! We hope it will help you in your changemaking journey.

• 10 Years of CXC

June 2022 marked the 10-year anniversary of ChangemakerXchange and we celebrated it in style with ±20 events, gatherings, workshops, dinners, and parties hosted by our members from across the world.

From Hanoi to Harare, from Luxembourg to Los Angeles–our community members hosted meet-ups, bringing our vision ‘a world where everyone is part of inclusive communities where people connect deeply and co-create positive action’ to life.

• KnowledgeXchange 2.0

KnowledgeXchange is a diverse and high-quality inventory of many interactive capacity-building workshops that matches the key needs of young changemakers today, which were surfaced in The Possibilists study. Each workshop is facilitated by and for our community members.

This year, we brought the KnowledgeXchange to the next level, engaging over 100 community members through 16 sessions! They are a mix of capacity-building sessions (storytelling, community building, leadership development, income generation, and more) and more wellbeing-oriented sessions (guided meditation, unpacking our relationship to money, a ‘walk-shop’ to reconnect to the present).

On this note, whenever possible, we share the takeaway from our community internal sessions on our social media for all changemakers out there. Make sure to follow us at @cmxchange to keep updated!

• Changemakers for the Planet

This year, we committed to doing even more for the climate and to address the planetary crisis. Supported by our partners Fondazione Cariplo, Antonis Schwarz, Robert Bosch Stiftung and SAP (MENA & North America), we kicked off three regional climate action programmes starting with summits in Europe for environmental activists and entrepreneurs, MENA alongside #COP27, and North America for women climate changemakers.

After in-person summits in each region, participants have been taking part in an online capacity-building programme ‘KnowledgeXchange’, where climate changemakers from across the world get the opportunity to connect with one another and reflect on the essentials of changemaking, starting with new work and wellbeing.

We’re also very excited to announce more regional programmes in 2023 coming up in Africa & Latin America, Europe and MENA (supported by Apple and SAP).

Watch this space for updates and get in touch for potential partnerships in Asia and Australasia!

• Embark on our DEI journey

Another exciting thing happening at ChangemakerXchange is the new commitment we’ve made on the topic of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

The importance of DEI resonates with our own findings from The Possibilists study, which shows that young social innovators who identify as being marginalised face even bigger barriers and struggles in achieving their impact. These include being at a higher risk of burnout and having less personal financial security.

We also acknowledge how DEI work is a necessary prerequisite for the fulfillment of our CXC vision itself. Deep connections and co-creation do not happen without people feeling included and thus belonging.

In our upcoming Co-Creation Summit, we are going to center DEI as we embark on our journey to deepen our understanding of this topic while aiming to ultimately become a DEI leader in the sector.

Watch this space for more news as we will certainly share more in the coming months!

Pillar 2: Facilitators for Change

• Online Training-of-Trainers for the ecosystem

Besides being a global community of changemakers, ChangemakerXchange is also a laboratory for innovative and participatory facilitation methodologies and practices. In March 2022, we took 18 participants through our renowned training on “Creating Transformative Experiences Online”, sharing our years of knowledge and expertise in hosting dynamic and engaging online spaces.
If you’re curious to know more about our Training-of-Trainers, do visit our dedicated page through the link below. And if you’re keen to participate in the upcoming training, don’t forget to join the waitlist.

• Tailored Training on Online facilitation

Early this year, we offered a two-session tailored training on online facilitation for 15 members of the United World Colleges staff members. We also led a training in online facilitation for the Melton Foundation staff, which introduced them to the basic principles behind meaningful online experiences.

Either you are part of a community of changemakers, entrepreneurs, or activists and want to create deeper connections and foster co-creation and collaboration, or you need facilitation training that is tailored to your particular context, you can always reach out to us, we’re more than happy to explore options that we can offer for you.

• Facilitation Partnerships

2022 was also a fruitful year filled with a number of facilitation partnerships for ChangemakerXchange.

Throughout the year, we have supported the SOS Children Villages global team to scale their Youth Power Programme globally. This included a train the trainer on facilitation and convening for young changemakers, the creation of hosting and facilitation toolkits, as well as facilitating the Asia region’s online summits, alongside five members of our CXC facilitation pool!

Under our partnership with Bosch Alumni Network (BAN) and their International Alumni Center, ChangemakerXchange has been hosting the Social Innovation Cluster on the BAN platform. In the past year, we’ve run capacity-building sessions, like fireside chats with a thought leader in regenerative culture, co-designed and facilitated a 3 part series responding to the impact of the outbreak of war in Europe. We are also in the process of building a toolkit on social innovation for the platform. (We’ll keep you posted!)

In October 2022, CXC travelled to Florence, the heart of the Renaissance, to create a ChangemakerXchange-inspired journey for a group of young leaders working for a socially just, environmentally restorative, economically inclusive, and technologically balanced world. Watch this brief video to get a glimpse of the summit.

Last but not least, just a few days ago, we facilitated a group of 30 changemakers who are part of the Project Together Farm Food Climate Initiative. It is the second time we supported Project Together with their facilitation so we were happy to have been invited back!

If you are interested to learn more about our past and current facilitation projects and partnerships, or simply want to get to know more about our amazing facilitators and their work, then do visit our dedicated page through the link below.

Pillar 3: The Possibilists

• The Possibilists Alliance is growing!

The Possibilist study was first conducted in 2021 by an alliance of 16 of the world’s leading youth social innovation networks. Now we’re so excited to share that the Possibilists Alliance keeps growing and that we’re now 18 global networks who have joined forces to help young changemakers thrive.

This alliance has a combined total reach of thousands of young changemakers, activists, and startup social entrepreneurs globally. It includes Ashoka, ChangemakerXchange, Enactus, Global Changemakers, Kofi Annan Foundation / Extremely Together, Junior Chamber International, MasterPeace, One Young World, Peace First, Restless Development, SDSN Youth, Social Impact Award, Social Shifters, SOS Children’s Villages, The Diana Award, Unleash, We Are Family Foundation, and Yunus & Youth.

If you’re interested to be involved, we would like to invite you first to visit our interactive website through the link below.

• Launch of The Possibilists Directory

In May 2022, during the ChangeNOW summit, we launched “The Possibilists Directory”, a global repository of over 500 grant-making, capacity building and support programs for young social innovators. It is freely accessible for young changemakers at thepossibilists.org/directory. The site is currently in BETA mode with new features to be launched in early 2023.

The Possibilists ultimately aspires to improve the conditions for young changemakers to thrive and deepen and scale their impact. The Possibilists Directory is the first tangible manifestation of that ambition.

• The next Possibilists Study

And finally, the Possibilists Alliance has officially decided to turn the Possibilists study into a bi-annual survey and report. The next call for submissions will launch in February 2023, so stay tuned!

We also aim to update our social media more regularly in the coming months with more information from the study and offers and opportunities for changemakers. Make sure to follow The Possibilists on social media so you will stay updated.

Thank you for reading this far!

And thank you so much for all of your support! We look forward to another impactful and meaningful year in 2023. And we wish everyone a wonderful new year.

– Your ChangemakerXchange Team

The post ChangemakerXchange in 2022 appeared first on ChangemakerXchange.

Our motivation for starting CXC was a simple one: Countless young people dedicate their work and way of life to tackling the most pressing issues of our time.

But despite their positive impact on society the path they’ve chosen can feel very lonely and full of insecurities and never-ending obstacles to overcome. They lack support, and many sacrifice their financial health and wellbeing trying to change a system that often works against them. We’re not immune to it either: The constant struggle and feeling of responsibility that comes with the ambition to affect positive change can be overwhelming. 

We built this community to help changemakers everywhere see that they are not alone! There are millions out there with the same passion and energy for positive change. We just need to find and support each other. By connecting we become the unstoppable tide that will carry the world toward a collaborative, empathetic, sustainable future.  

It is a future we are very excited about.

Yours,
The ChangemakerXchange Team

You got a bit more time? Please keep on reading.  

It was Tuesday, 26th of June 2012 and cold water was in high demand that day on İstiklal Caddesi, Istanbul’s main pedestrian zone, as the megacity sizzled under the sun. After months of diligent planning, our team eagerly awaited the arrival of 40 young social entrepreneurs and activists from across Europe for a gathering named ChangemakerXchange.  

The slightly outdated hotel, near the city’s busy Taksim square, was instantly buzzing with excitement as the participants made contact, all visibly thrilled over meeting so many fellow changemakers at once. They were hugging to say hi. They laughed about the goofy T-Shirts we got them. They snapped group selfies, shared little gifts from their home countries, memorised each other’s names, and were eager to hear as much as possible about everyone’s work and personal life stories.  

Looking back, it was beautiful.
We just couldn’t see it, yet.  

This was a “conference” after all! There was no time for what we considered unproductive mixing & mingling. We had a study tour, pitching events, site visits, panel discussions, lectures, and workshops to get to. Chop, chop, from A to B to C, on the bus, off the bus, hurry up, let’s get things done! There we were, replicating the exact same principles of show and tell, heropreneurship and pressure to perform that are running young changemakers into the ground around the world: Nearly 60% of them have experienced burnout and 79% report being stretched thin by multiple simultaneous responsibilities. * (The Possibilists Report 2021)  

And so it didn’t take long for a group of them to approach us, and rightfully question why we brought so many of them together if we didn’t even give them proper space to breathe and connect. All they wanted (and in fact desperately needed) was to simply bond with other changemakers, learn from each other and not some external lecturer. They wanted to be vulnerable for once and put some well-deserved distance between them and their stressful day-to-day work and ventures. 

This honest feedback from our earliest members led to an epiphany. What if ChangemakerXchange wasn’t a conference, but instead a safe, judgement-free, fun, and supportive space? An opportunity to refill your cup, to just be yourself, a chance to remind yourself why you do what you do in the first place. An invitation to connect deeply with like-minded changemakers without the need for any specific outcome. And ever since, this has shaped the core of what CXC is all about.

2022 Community Survey Report

Thanks to our supporter Robert Bosch Stiftung and their trust, as well as the immensely helpful feedback of the changemakers we got the chance to design the summit of our dreams. We put it right into action at the CXC Istanbul 2013 gathering. This time it was all about deliberately “creating a space”, centred around three key pillars: Human Connection, Peer-to-Peer Learning and Meaningful Collaboration.

Some testimonials from partners of ChangemakerXchange:

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Over time we also realised the true extent of pressure and risk of burnout young changemakers face. Through a deeply integrated partnership with Recipes for Wellbeing, a collaborative effort that emerged from a CXC summit in 2015, we later added wellbeing as a fourth, cross-cutting element to all our summits. We in fact consider it a key role of ChangemakerXchange to shift the culture of changemaking to include a focus on wellbeing as the basis for any change in the world. 

And so in the winter of 2013 instead of in the heart of the city we stayed at an ecological lodge by the Black Sea, surrounded by forests, lakes, and green hills. (So tired and run down by the 24/7 hustle of being a changemaker, one member famously slept through the first day of his summit, and even that was ok! … He went on to become one of CXC’s most active contributors and now runs one of Europe’s highest-impact green-tech ventures).  

We took long walks by the beach or huddled in front of an open fire, and slowly but surely opened up to each other. We spoke about what brought us to this point in life and our dreams. We showed vulnerability and shared the fears we had over the success of our projects, the painful lack of funding, the passion and love we felt for making a positive change (and the pressure that comes with this sense of responsibility). And within no time the group of strangers became friends, supporters, and allies – which, in return, led to an unbelievable openness to share experiences, expertise and resources with each other, and ultimately the desire to collaborate.

Self-reflections from the ChangemakerXchange core team members:

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By stripping things down to the very basics - the deep human connection - we seemed to have discovered a magic recipe. Eager to bring the experience to many more people before long we started hosting summits in North Africa, Asia and Africa, followed by bringing CXC to Latin America, the US and Canada in 2021.  

And whether we gathered by lake Elementita near Nairobi, in the rural town of Tsuwano in Japan, in Guiyang in mainland China, in Rwanda, the Philippines or in South Africa – the energy, learning and feeling of belonging was deeply humbling and inspiring every time. 

It was also during this time that ChangemakerXchange moved beyond individual meetups and evolved into a real, genuine global community. In our latest “Community Survey” among members 90% of the respondents said they connect with other members regularly and 65% of them told us they collaborated with others in the network. 

The years following the first summits were defining years for ChangemakerXchange. Looking back, it was four things that stuck out and that inform our work till today: 

• Members hosting summits: In 2016 the first members of the community entertained the idea of facilitating and hosting their own CXC summits. A first completely member-hosted summit near the Dead Sea, gathering participants from Palestine and Israel, gave us all the confidence that our model could be replicated. And so we went from just two summits in 2015, to 5 in 2016, to 6 in 2017 and finally 12 in 2018 and 2019 respectively. All thanks to CXC’s members, who acted as hosts, organisers and facilitators We still sometimes have nightmares from all the international money transfers and financial reports from these gatherings. But it was worth it!

• Toolkits: It was shortly after these first member-hosted gatherings that we started building what is maybe CXC’s most critical piece of infrastructure: Our hosting and facilitation toolkits. An ever-growing repository of checklists, templates, sessions, tips and tricks that allows our facilitators to copy our model, adapt it to their local context and run our formats anywhere in the world. All while maintaining a similar level of quality and care. 
• Training-of-Trainers Summits: Another critical piece of the puzzle was our first Trainings-of-Trainers summits in the Philippines and Germany in 2018. Onboarding 30 at first the group’s grown to 65 people across the world. Both changemakers and skilled facilitators, they’re experts at creating deeper human connections, fostering wellbeing, and enabling peer-to-peer learning.
• Co-Creation: With hundreds of members collaborating across the world, and many with active roles as hosts and facilitators, we felt it was time for everyone in the community to be involved in shaping the future of the network. And so ever since 2017 we host a yearly “Co-Creation Summit”, where we collectively define our vision, mission, future activities, principles, or policies. On top, a Strategy Group holds the core team accountable and provides us with input and guidance throughout the year.

Despite the global pandemic (we first heard about Coronavirus in a post from one of our members from China) there was no more stopping us: 

Becoming independent
In 2020 we became an independent charitable organisation, based in Berlin, and spun off from Ashoka (our ‘home’ for the first years). We owe everyone at the organisation a huge amount of gratitude for their trust and support and remain very close friends and partners. 

Online Summits
In 2021 we gathered changemakers from Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America, North America and the Caribbean online, and realised: It’s possible to bring the ‘magic’ to digital spaces. And we learned so much doing it that we’re now hosting experiential trainings on creating transformative experiences online. 

KnowledgeXchange
Inspired by the energy of our online summits we also launched the “KnowledgeXchange”, an online peer-to-peer learning programme and ‘library’ of capacity-building sessions. It enables CXC members with lived experience of leading a social change initiative to share their expertise, experience and insights with other changemakers, be that around successful fundraising strategies, leadership, finance, or any other topic of importance. 

The Possibilists
Another huge highlight and milestone for ChangemakerXchange in 2021 and 2022 was the launch of The Possibilists, an ecosystem alliance of 16 of the world’s largest youth social innovation networks. Collectively we work with hundreds of thousands of young changemakers and reach millions over social media. We think the initiative has huge potential to ensure the global support ecosystem is aligning around a data-driven understanding of the needs of young changemakers, and builds the conditions for them to truly thrive. 

Phew, well… there would in fact be 1000 + 1 more stories, activities, insights and anecdotes to share. 

But: How about you see for yourself? 

• You’re a young changemaker and eager to join our community? This way.
• Just here to learn? Check out our growing database of resources.
• As a foundation, business or philanthropic funder, consider coming on board as a partner.
• You’re in need of facilitation, done by some of the skilled young changemakers from around the world? Let us know!
• None of the above applies to you, but you’d still love to learn more? Check out our blog.

We can’t wait to see what the next 10 years will bring. 

Anouk, Greta, Matthias, Miriam, Nadya and Nick
Yours, the ChangemakerXchange Team

The post Celebrating Our Anniversary appeared first on ChangemakerXchange.

Paris, May 2022 at the ChangeNOW Summit

Whether through movements like ‘Fridays for Future’ or by starting their own initiatives, youth worldwide are stepping up like never before in history to tackle the pressing issues of our time. They hold political and corporate leaders accountable, come up with innovative solutions and create much needed positive impact in their communities.

But: These changemakers need support! According to a report from 2021 by The Possibilists among 800 young social innovators aged 16-35 from 137 countries who all lead impact-focused initiatives, social businesses and non-profits less than 1 in 10 of them can compensate themselves for their work on their ventures, over 60% have experienced burnout and over 90% face significant barriers, such as access to capital, skills and support networks.

"Given the challenges we face as humanity today it is unacceptable that those eager to get to work and fix the world’s problems struggle so much. We need to step up our game and better support young people who dedicate their lives to social and environmental causes," says Nick McGirl, Co-Founder & Managing Director at ChangemakerXchange, the umbrella organization that hosts The Possibilists.

To take the support for young changemakers to the next level 16 of the world’s leading youth social innovation networks, including Ashoka, ChangemakerXchange, We are Family Foundation, Kofi Annan Foundation, Unleash, Yunus & Youth, SOS Children’s Villages International and many more have decided to join forces and form The Possibilists Alliance. Based on their extensive research and studies of the challenges and needs of changemakers they now launch their first collective effort: A global directory of support for young innovators.

“The Possibilists Alliance is ideally positioned to take on this task and role. It’s the world’s largest and first collective of its kind, reaching hundreds of thousands of young changemakers and millions more via social media. And we’re all very excited to see what’s possible now that we all collaborate on a global level,” says Matthias Scheffelmeier, the co-lead of the initiative.

Sourced and endorsed by 30 experienced young social entrepreneurs and freely accessible at thepossibilists.org/directory the beta-version features 500 opportunities from organizations around the world.

The offers include grant-making programs, capacity building, coaching, activities to improve the youth’ mental health, scholarships and technical support and many more. Future versions of the Directory promise to boast thousands of entries, a self-assessment of needs and customized suggestions for support, online learning, events and special offers - making it a one stop shop for young changemakers.

Visit The Possibilists Directory

The post New worldwide alliance launches global ‘Yellow Pages’ with offers for support for young changemakers appeared first on ChangemakerXchange.

By Nick McGirl, Greta Rossi & Tariq Al-Olaimy

THE CONTEXT

The triple planetary crisis (climate change, biodiversity loss, and air pollution) is likely the biggest existential threat humanity has ever encountered. The most recent IPCC report has described the situation as ‘now or never to stave off climate disaster’ and the climate talks at COP26 were tersely summed up by Greta Thunberg as a “two-week-long celebration of business as usual and blah, blah, blah”. 

These crises are disproportionately affecting society’s most at-risk individuals and regions and accelerating a plethora of interdependent social challenges, including gender inequality and systemic racism. Our dependence on fossil fuels also contributes to many of the conflicts we witness today. 

'Climate justice is the key to all justice.’ - Jamie Margolin, 18-year-old youth climate activist. 

Young people today are naturally the group which will be most heavily affected by the crises in the future. But they also experience the highest levels of anxiety about the issue now with an Avaaz study showing 75% of children and young people feel the future is frightening. They are also the demographic who are moving the needle on the climate crisis, holding leaders to account like never before. Take the Fridays for Future movement for example – they have mobilised tens of millions of people into climate action and hosted over one hundred thousand strike events.

Beyond the crucially necessary protests, young people are also offering solutions. Examples from our global ChangemakerXchange community include people like Mutetelenu, who trains Southern African children to be climate change ambassadors; Tariq, who co-authored this article and who helps us learn from and collaborate with nature through Public Planet Partnerships; or Vera, who recently joined Germany’s Federal Ministry for Climate Action as a special advisor. 

THE CHALLENGES

However, choosing a route to climate leadership can be a treacherous path, particularly for those who start young. We identified four key challenges youth climate leaders face.

1. Burnout 

Many youth climate leaders describe having experienced burnout, risking both their personal sustainability and the sustainability of their initiatives in the process. Our global research with The Possibilists also backs this up, with 59% of young changemakers having experienced some degree of burnout during their work on their initiatives. This risk of burnout is even higher among women and non-binary folks, and changemakers between 16 and 24. 

“I don’t want to be burned out, to already be tired of fighting when I’m so young.” - Sena Wazer, 17-year-old climate action changemaker. 

2. Inclusion and Access 

Youth are often tokenised and not given meaningful platforms to air their grievances or present their solutions. Those from historically marginalised communities and the Global South are often even more excluded from the key conversations despite experiencing the most direct threats of climate change. COP26 was framed as the whitest and most privileged ever and constant disparities are pointed out in media coverage of climate activists in the Global South vs. North. 

3. Personal Finance & Organisational Funding 

Our research shows that only 9% of young changemakers can compensate themselves properly through their initiatives. They are chronically underfunded and are often forced to look elsewhere for financial compensation and security. This only exacerbates the lack of inclusion in spaces such as COP where young changemakers struggle to fund their participation. Young people with powerful ideas for local climate action are not supported with the resources to implement them at a meaningful scale.

4. Need for Collective Action 

Young people are creating collective action everywhere we look, but with the dominant narrative of changemaking often centred around one individual - the ‘hero/heroine’. The United Nations Major Group for Children and Youth (UN MGCY) has also spoken of the dangers of the individualisation of youth engagement, and. This focus on individuals often comes at the expense of collective impact and leads to the misappropriation of youth representations in institutional avenues. Addressing the planetary crises we need to move beyond the dominant narrative of the individual towards a more collaborative – and systemic – approach to changemaking. 

CXC'S CLIMATE ACTION INITIATIVE (WATCH THIS SPACE!)

As ChangemakerXchange, we have spent the last months reflecting with our community on what can be our own response to these challenges.  

We are now in the final stages of co-creating (together with young climate leaders from around the world) a big global intersectional climate action programme. This will build community and capacity of young climate activists and changemakers around the world and will be our core focus in the immediate future.  

We are in exciting conversations with stakeholders across the ecosystem about bringing this to life and believe this has the potential to help the youth climate movement become more connected, collaborative, and impactful.  

Watch this space for more news as we will launch in the next couple of months! 

WALKING THE WALK

While our approach to climate action is rooted in systems-level change, it is complemented by the belief that individual action and embodying our own principles and values is crucial.

• We have developed a Sustainability Manifesto that guides our sustainability efforts and ensures all our activities minimise their negative impact on the environment. For example, this includes the use of 100% renewable energy for our servers and our office, a “vegan only” office policy, and sustainable stationery. 
• All our staff have the option to devote 10% of their time to climate action initiatives, including joining protests and supporting local grass roots initiatives. 
• We offset the carbon emissions of ALL our historic, current, and future activities, but also acknowledge the limits of traditional offsetting and we have reframed them as ‘Climate reparations’ and we will make direct donations to youth-led climate action in the Global South. 

JOIN US!

Reach out if you are an organisation working to support youth climate leaders and would like to find out more about our upcoming efforts.  

Reach out to the CXC team

Join the waiting list for the programme if you are a young climate action changemaker anywhere in the world.

Join CXC summits waiting list

Check out our list of climate action resources for changemakers where you can find everything from ‘navigating climate grief’ to tools to assess how well your company or country is performing on climate measures to digital storytelling toolkits for climate activists. 

Visit the Resources for Changemakers page

This is our ‘now or never moment for humanity’ – let’s all step in and step up to support those young people who are leading the way to change the course of the climate crisis. 

The post Now or never: ChangemakerXchange focuses on climate action appeared first on ChangemakerXchange.

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To kick it off, we chose Rob Hopkins’ book, “From What Is to What If: Unleashing the Power of Imagination to Create the Future We Want”. And we were so lucky to sit (virtually) with the author himself to discuss the book last week.

Rob Hopkins is an activist, a writer on environmental issues, and a true champion of the collective imagination. In his book, he shares stories of individuals and communities worldwide who are reclaiming and unleashing their collective imagination. And he invites us, changemakers, to do the same.

In our one-hour conversation, we talked about his writing process, personal takeaways, and some inquiries that he still has and will continue to investigate (second book spoiler alert!). Here are some key points that we would like to share with you.

On the process of writing the book: 

I read some research which suggested that we had seen this sort of peak in imagination around the mid-90s, and that IQ had then kept rising, and imagination had then started to decline, and it’s declined ever since. And I thought, “wow, when that was published, it was a big story in America, and people said, what does this mean for economic growth? What does this mean for Hollywood? But no one ever said what this means for climate change movements, social justice movements, etc.” And so I just started collecting things and reading things, and then having conversations with people saying, I’ve got this idea of writing a book about imagination and the decline of imagination, and why we need to rebuild our collective imagination. Is that something anybody would want to read? Is that something that I should do? And everyone I spoke to said, “it’s very interesting. Yes, that’s a good idea.” So, I guess I spent then a couple of years really doing all the research. (View on YouTube.)

On his own takeaway from writing the book:

I’m finding that there’s a whole really interesting area of research around imagination that comes from radical black movements, black feminism, Afrofuturism, prison abolition movement. […] So, it always keeps leading me to lots of different things. The podcast has been a really nice opportunity to explore a lot of those things in more depth as well. So, it wasn’t like I did the book, and then I was finished. The book was a kind of a snapshot of where I was at that point, in this process of inquiry, and this investigation, and it’s continuing, ongoing, and becoming ever more fascinating to me. (View on YouTube.)

On learnings for changemakers: 

• I think one of them is about trying to introduce play into activism. What does our activism look like if it is more playful?  
• I think there’s something about learning really good facilitation. There’s a beautiful training that I did a couple of years ago called The Art of Invitation, which was a real “a-ha” moment for me… In their philosophy, they say the invitation is the most important thing. It’s not just whoever comes in are the right people. Actually, you need to be really consciously making sure that the diversity of people you need to be there are there. And they’re not going to just come if you stick up a poster. So, they say 40% of the time and energy of an event needs to go into the invitation and physically going and inviting people, and finding out what will get them there. 20% then goes into the event itself. And then the other 40% goes into digesting what happened—and then feeding that back to everybody who came in a way that’s accessible to them. So that’s something I find really useful.  
• Listen to the podcast!  (robhopkins.net)
• (View on YouTube.)

And lastly, his book recommendations: 

• We Do This ‘Til We Free Us by Mariame Kaba 
• Freedom dreams by Robin Kelley 
• Kindred by Octavia E. Butler 
• The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson 
• The Spirit Level by Kate Pickett and Richard G. Wilkinson 
• Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist by Kate Raworth 

We highly recommend reading Rob Hopkin’s book, From What Is to What If: Unleashing the Power of Imagination to Create the Future We Want.

And if you are curious to know more, you can watch his TEDtalk or lecture, read an article by him, and listen to his podcast. 

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Dear Changemakers around the world,

We are so excited to announce that, on June 16th, The Possibilists, a new study - the first of its kind - initiated by ChangemakerXchange community and conducted by a global alliance of youth communities, reveals the pressing needs of young changemakers worldwide who dedicate their lives to social and environmental causes.

"Young changemakers are resilient, innovative and intrinsically motivated to change the world and improve the lives of others. But, in doing so, they’re sacrificing their wealth and wellbeing. As a society, we need to step up our game and better support young people who dedicate their lives to social and environmental causes," says Nick McGirl, our Co-Founder & Managing Director at ChangemakerXchange, the umbrella organization that hosts The Possibilists.

The study surveyed a diverse group of about 800 young social innovators aged 16-35 from 137 countries who all lead impact-focused initiatives, social businesses, non-profits and campaigns related to every single one of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, from lobbying for the rights of migrant construction workers to supporting sexual violence survivors.

The participants in the study come from the different organizations supporting young changemakers; Ashoka, ChangemakerXChange, Global Changemakers, Kofi Annan Foundation, MasterPeace, Obama Foundation, One Young World, Peace First, Social Impact Award, Social Shifters, SOS Children’s Villages, The Diana Award, Unleash, We Are Family Foundation, Young Sustainable Impact, and Yunus & Youth.

Read the full report

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Want to join a fast-moving and growing social start-up and work with some of the most exciting young social entrepreneurs from all around the world?

We are looking for a solution-focused and highly organised Operations and Finance team member, to join us at ChangemakerXchange, a global community gathering some of the world’s top young changemakers.

1. The Environment

We strive for a workplace which is:

• Agile, fun, empowering and fulfilling – somewhere all team members truly love to work.
• Free from hierarchies and bottlenecks, everyone on the team leads and takes important decisions. For more information on our Modus Operandi, please see our Team Manifesto.
• Optimally set up to really deliver on our purpose and to serve our community of changemakers.

The ChangemakerXchange Purpose (co-created with our community members):

ChangemakerXchange is a global community providing safe, supportive, fun, and empowering spaces for changemakers. We foster profound and lasting connections, nurture wellbeing, and enable peer-learning and meaningful collaborations. We envision a world where changemakers collectively create, sustain and scale positive change for people and planet.

2. The Role

We are looking for an Operations focused team member to lead on many of our financial, administrative, and operational processes and platforms; including but not limited to the below set of responsibilities.

• Financial reporting and monitoring
• Bookkeeping & Accounting (e.g. working with the tax office, processing reimbursements, and bank transfers)
• Database management
• Payroll and HR processes
• Support with reporting for funders
• Working with our CRM platform and other tools
• Support with GDPR compliance and documentation
• Other miscellaneous office management, admin and operations tasks
• Some IT and hardware infrastructural support (basic)
• Joining team meetings and strategy sessions

3. What we expect from the candidate

• Experience and fluency or very fast learning capacity with administrative tasks and programs (MS Office, Salesforce, ideally DATEV)
• Passion for social entrepreneurship and ideally experience in the sector
• Skill with and passion for numbers
• Ability to work and take decisions quickly and independently
• Good communicator and solution-focused
• Some IT and hardware understanding
• Attention to detail, thorough and process/operations-oriented
• Fluency in English and German
• At least 2 years of relevant work experience in a finance/bookkeeping role

4. What we offer 

• Ideally an initial commitment of 2-3 days per week (open to discussion)
• Much of the work will be virtual so regular home-office feasible
• Based in Germany (ideally based in Berlin or able to travel to Berlin frequently)
• An unparalleled learning opportunity for someone starting out in the sector
• Our remuneration is competitive for the sector. We collectively set your salary based on your years of ‘Changemaking experience’ during an honest and deep discussion. We are open and creative about what constitutes changemaking experience and it can absolutely include projects or initiatives you started as a teen, volunteering, or parental leave (a true example of changemaking in action!)
• We have a deep focus on personal growth and have a wide range of talent development initiatives and perks

5. Diversity at ChangemakerXchange 

At ChangemakerXchange, we celebrate diversity as one of the key values and strengths which helps us to thrive as a global community. We strive to challenge our unconscious biases and create a fully inclusive environment for all our team members and community members.

Our goal is to be as diverse as the community members we serve. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, colour, religion, gender, pregnancy, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, medical condition, physical and mental disability, or age.

6.  How to Apply

 Apply via this form by 23rd August at midnight GMT. 

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At ChangemakerXchange, we stand together in solidarity with the victims of racism and prejudice, and also with those who seek justice through protests, not just in the US, but across the globe. As a global community, we do our best to create a safe and empowering space for all and we believe this is impossible unless the community is diverse and inclusive.  

Systemic and institutionalized racism are among the defining issues of our time. And we believe that to be silent about the discrimination, violence, and threats to the lives and wellbeing of the Black community is to condone them. That being said, we would like to ask you to join us in not being complicit through these concrete steps. 

?? Take Action 

Inaction is not an option. At the same time, we know that all the information and resources can be overwhelming, particularly knowing who and how to support. 

If you are unsure where to start, you can check out this website for plenty of tips and actions to take; from petitions you can sign, organisations you can donate to, and protests you can join (and how to do so safely). And if you engage in the latter, this “Mitigating aftershock for activists” recipe by our official wellbeing partner, Recipes for Wellbeing will come in handy. 

Until justice applies to all, there is no justice. And until then, we should do our part to demand it. 

? Educate Ourselves 

As a community that values and prioritises systemic impact, we believe that it is important to address not just the symptoms of racism but change the entire system. We all need to educate ourselves on what it means to be anti-racist and understand better the roots of today’s struggle in a long history of wide-ranging, systemic social and racial injustice. 

Here and here, you can find the most comprehensive list of resources to deepen our anti-racism work; books, podcasts, films, and toolkits. 

And if you are looking for some anti-racism experts to follow on social media, you can look for these names below. 

Scholars:  

Ibram Kendi, Jennifer Eberhardt, Jennifer Richeson, Robin DiAngelo, Dolly Chugh, Stephanie Creary, Sam Sommers, Britney Cooper. 

Writers/Activists:  

Nikole Hannah-Jones, Bryan Stevenson, Reni Eddo-Lodge, Heather McGhee, Celeste Ng, Roxane Gay, Julie Lythcott-Haims, Rachel Cargle. 

? Check-in on our friends, family, partners, and colleagues from the Black community 

This may be a challenge if we never engaged in a conversation with people who have been victimized because of what they perceived—even more challenging if we never experienced ourselves how to be on their shoes. But we should not let our fear keep us silent. It is better to say something and be open to being corrected and educated. We should take this time as growth opportunities, which hopefully may result in understanding and genuine unity. 

We found this guideline by Haile Thomas, the teen activist and the CEO of The Happy Org useful. It encourages and equips us with tools to step out of our fear and engage in something called Revolutionary Conversations.  

Words from Haile Thomas:

“Revolutionary conversations are social interactions that decenter ego and allow heart, spirit, honesty, and vulnerability to be center stage. It is not about criticism. It is embracing tough love and open sharing of/engagement with opportunities to listen, feel, learn, and grow individually and collectively. It is what happens when we see each other and our experiences without judgment in order to understand personal truths. It is refraining from projecting your opinion or perception of the experiences of others, and instead, hearing and learning from an existence you cannot relate to.” 

This is a time of pain, anger, and sadness. But with us coming together to do something and contribute to tackling this issue, we hope this can also be a time we look back on as a catalyst for real, lasting systemic change.   

Your ChangemakerXchange Team 

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At the beginning of 2020, we were preparing to welcome another 100+ changemakers addressing social and environmental challenges through our summits happening in Rwanda, Romania, Spain, India, and China. However, by the beginning of February, we realised our 2020 would be a very different year from what we anticipated. It soon became clear that we could not host our two Training of Trainers summits for 25+ community members selected to join our Global Facilitation Pool. And within weeks, we were forced to put on hold all upcoming summits for the year.

On the one hand COVID-19 increased our anxiety about the present and the future, but on the other hand, it opened the door for a mind-blowing wave of global solidarity and collaboration. We witnessed our members reinventing themselves to serve their beneficiaries, contributing to our Global Solidarity Fund to support members struggling to make ends meet, and joining efforts in the fight against COVID-19. Even more so now that borders are closed and physical distancing is the norm, promoting cross-border learning and sharing of knowledge, experience, and expertise is essential to spark positive change in our communities and ecosystems.

That’s why we embarked on a new experiment and brought together changemakers from 10 changemaker communities* for a two-day “COVID-19 Collective Action Summit”.

On 20-21 April 2020, 100+ changemakers from 50+ countries gathered online to share their ideas and best practices to fight COVID-19.

Illustration by: Housatonic

The virtual summit aimed to reach the following objectives:

1. Connecting with changemakers from all around the world working on solutions to address the COVID-19 crisis and feeling belonging to a network of supported and like-minded peers tackling the crisis;
2. Learning from and sharing with their peers concrete, actionable skills, approaches and tools to tackle the crisis and implement in their work;
3. Cultivating wellbeing to avoid burnout at this stage and increase their personal sustainability and the sustainability of their teams; and
4. Finding synergies and joining cross-border collaborations to amplify their positive impact.

“This summit broke all stereotypes about interactiveness level of virtual summits. I couldn’t even notice how these days passed, as we have been so passionate to learn from each other, to share best practises from our backgrounds and communities, to have access to global resources, to be actual hosts and facilitators of the summit. If the virtual summit could be so interesting, I imagine how it would be energising and fun in real life!”

– Sara Rajably, Azerbaijan

We are extremely grateful to all the changemakers, facilitators, and participating organisations who contributed to this experiment. Thank you for making this happen!

And to all the changemakers out there, rest assured that we are already exploring more opportunities to keep supporting you! For now, check out our CXC Virtual Facilitation Toolkit (freshly updated!) for useful tips on how to host and facilitate online gatherings. And below you can find some of the best practices shared by the participating changemakers during the summit.

And for a quick overview of the summit feedback, check out this visual summary.

*Changemakers were selected from the following communities and networks: Ashoka, Bridge for Billions, Bosch Alumni Network, ChangemakerXchange, ChangeNOW, Ginkgo Foundation, Global Changemakers, Global Shapers, Obama Foundation, Yunus&Youth.

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