It is with heavy hearts that the EDGE Funders Alliance staff, board and European steering group reflect on the news of the passing of our dear friend and colleague Susan Treadwell. While not unexpected – Susan had shared her diagnosis in La Bergerie at an EDGE Europe retreat – it was still a shock to hear that she passed away on Monday evening, 23 November 2020. Her untimely loss has rocked us all, whilst we also remember everything she brought to the EDGE community over the years. In her role as Deputy Director of OSIFE, Susan was an early champion of EDGE in Europe and instrumental in establishing FundAction. We’re grateful to OSIFE colleagues for crafting this message, which shares some insights and reminds us to be ‘positive antibodies’.

Dear EDGE members, dear EDGE community,

Our dear colleague and friend Susan Treadwell passed away on Monday evening after a courageous five year struggle with cancer. Susan’s death is a sad moment for all of us at the Open Society Initiative for Europe (OSIFE) and many across our Open Society Foundations network, it is also a moment to elevate her accomplishments. We know that not all of you had the opportunity to meet Susan, but we believe her life story is in many ways relevant for EGDE.

Born in California, Susan first walked through the doors of OSF’s former office in Budapest 2003. For more than a decade her passion was human rights, transparency and accountability in Southeastern Europe, ranging from work on ending impunity for war crimes in the Balkans to supporting deinstitutionalization of persons with mental health problems. In 2013, Susan became the deputy director of OSIFE, joining Jordi Vaquer in setting the basis for what OSIFE became in the coming years.

Susan was the first to speak about systems change in OSIFE. She was also the first to ask our founder about the need to engage on climate justice. At times her efforts ran against the current, yet she always found the energy to persist. She was a passionate fighter for social justice, not shying away from difficult and uncomfortable conversations. And while cancer was destroying her body, her spirit remained strong.

Susan used cancer as a metaphor for the work that must be done to combat financial systems run riot across the world. In a panel discussion which took place in 2017, she said, “cancer, if you break it down to its essential element, is uncontrolled growth. It is cells that have gone haywire and refuse to die, and that growth taking over the organism.” Everyone, almost everywhere in the world, has been touched by cancer, she said. So too has everyone been impacted by the opaque complexity of the global financial markets, with far too many of our siblings bearing the brunt of financial systems run amok with little consequence.

A true advocate of the slogan “Nothing about us without us is for us”, Susan galvanised the launch of the participatory fund and platform that was to become FundAction. Susan was also central to establishing EDGE in Europe, being there at the start in 2015 when EDGE Europe first met in La Bergerie. She always spoke fondly of the EDGE Europe retreats, the collective spirit of EDGE members seeking to change a system of extractivism even from within the Master’s House, and of course the dancing – she was the life of the party, first to arrive and last to leave! Her spirit of curiosity and willingness to question convention touched us all. Even as she fought her relentless illness she never lost her optimism or her determination to make the world a better place.

She always sought to live the EDGE motto for philanthropy: “If you’re not on the edge, you’re taking up too much space.” I think there could be no better way to honor her memory than for each of us to re-double our efforts to follow her example.

As her OSIFE colleagues, we had a privilege to work with Susan and see firsthand what a visionary and inclusive leader she was. She gave us a lot and to the joint struggle for a more just world, and that will not be forgotten. Our philanthropic community has lost a lot with Susan’s departure and she will be missed.

Our thoughts are with Susan’s family, her husband Matt and her two boys, Damien and Griffin.

In loving memory of a dear friend and colleague,

On behalf of our OSIFE family,

Donal, Renata, Rose and Tin