EDGE Europe Retreat 2024
From October 9 to 12, 2024, EDGE members gathered at Domaine Les Racines, just outside Paris, for an inspiring and collaborative EDGE Europe Retreat. This retreat brought together aligned progressive funders from across Europe, creating an environment rich in collaboration and long-term partnership building. Over the course of the retreat, participants engaged in deep discussions aimed at strengthening the ecosystem for transformative change, fostering meaningful dialogue and innovative thinking among our community.
The retreat offered numerous opportunities for participants to organize, strategize, and enhance their collaborative efforts towards common goals. A key focus was on co-designing EDGE’s governance structure, ensuring our organizational framework aligns with our mission and values. Members also played an integral role in shaping EDGE’s new strategy, laying the groundwork for future initiatives and collective action. We are excited to continue building on these discussions and are deeply grateful for the energy and commitment of all who participated.
See the list of participants here.
Getting grounded in context
As is tradition, we began our retreat with an introductory discussion on the socio-political context of the host region. This year, we welcomed Fondation Marius Jacob, France Libertès, and Fondation Danielle Mitterrand to share their insights.
The discussion highlighted the significant influence of the far-right on the political landscape, marked by escalating police violence and increasing repression of social movements. It was noted that philanthropy has largely remained silent, with only a few voices willing to confront this rightward shift. Despite these challenges, some grassroots movements have shown resilience, striving to build collective power and drive meaningful change at the local level.
This presentation was followed by a collective mapping exercise where participants were encouraged to reflect first on the frequency of elections in their country of origin, which is meaningful when considering healthy democratic participation in a country.
See more details on the Collective Mapping exercise here.
Main Gathering Sessions
- EDGE Strategy Session
- Fishbowl: Progressive Philanthropy in Practices
- Open Spaces
- EDGE Governance Session
- Meet our new Philanthropic Partnership Director
- Organize funders globally to foster trust and collaborate with each other, so that they can disrupt the power dynamics inherent in philanthropy and seek to create new systemic alternatives.
- Implement spaces for learning and taking actions that follow the lead of movements and align with their vision for systemic change.
After a plenary discussion, members were divided into two subgroups.
The first group concentrated on integrating members’ needs and vision into the organization’s strategy. Participants were encouraged to reflect on what are the sticking points and challenges they are facing in the period ahead and, secondly, on what spaces can EDGE create that would be an added value to their work.
The second group focused on movement engagement within EDGE, exploring how funders can effectively support and maintain accountability to movements. This discussion aligned with EDGE’s strategic work and Theory of Change, emphasizing the importance of clarifying EDGE’s role in promoting global social justice and fostering accountability to movements.
Facilitated by Martina Fin, Hana ElSafoury and Tayler Hauger
This fishbowl session featured four EDGE members engaging in a dialogue about the role of grantmakers in driving transformation within the philanthropic sector and reshaping the broader ecosystem. The conversation delved into defining “progressive” philanthropy, highlighting practical examples of shifting power dynamics, and addressing the challenges encountered in this work.
For more details, refer to the section “Progressive Philanthropy in Practice: Who Are We, and How Are We Radically Transforming Philanthropy” in the report.
The session was facilitated by Ali Khan.
During the retreat, we provided members with open spaces to represent their own ideas and organizing practices. Participants had the opportunity to choose the topics of their interest and lead discussions with fellow members.
Open spaces focused on:
- Impact Measurement
- Care Practices
- Transformation (internal) from old to the new
- What is ‘risky’ and what does it mean
- Dreaming workshop: building a new foundation
- The democracy session/the rise of far right
Find the details of each space in the ‘Open Spaces’ section of the Report.
The session began with two inspiring conversations on reshaping EDGE’s governance structure to reflect principles of collaboration, shared responsibility, and democratic organization.
The Guerrilla Foundation shared insights from its internal transformation, highlighting its emphasis on participatory grantmaking and governance. Meanwhile, the Marius Jacob Foundation showcased its governance model, which is designed to empower grassroots communities and prioritize collective, decentralized decision-making processes.
To proceed, after updating participants on the EDGE governance transition process, members were asked to divide into groups and focus on different themes considered pivotal in developing an effective governance model aligned with EDGE Strategy, mission and vision.
Members gathered in three main subsessions:
- Expanding Member Decision-Making Power
- Role and Structure of RASGs
- Agora as a space for Accountability
Find what came out from these conversations on the ‘EDGE Governance Session Overview’ section of the Report.