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PROGRAM ANNOUNCEMENT
THE CHRISTENSEN FUND March 9th, 2009
Changes in the Global Programs at The Christensen Fund Impact of the Financial Crisis: Declines in the endowment and future bequest of The Christensen Fund have obliged us to reduce our annual expenditures around 25% by 2010. To meet our mission of backing the stewards of biocultural diversity over the long term we have had to plan a scaling back in the area we feel is most resilient to reduction in our financial support: namely our global grantmaking programs. Coupled with significant cuts in our operational expenses we believe this can sustain our capacity to support transformative change in the five current regional programs and other efforts. Consolidation and Transition of the Global Program: Over the next two years Christensen will gradually consolidate its two global programs – currently a total of around $4.5m/annum in grants – into a single program with a grant budget of around $1.5m/annum from 2011. We are making this announcement now so that there is time to minimize significant disruption to the grantee community and find creative ways forward. These changes will be implemented through an organized two year transition during which we shall assist individual grantees and collaborative initiatives to achieve all they can under current projects, while preparing for a future with less or different funding. The Fund will honor all its existing multi-year grant agreements for 2009-2010, and will work with grantees to develop strategies for transitional support to core initiatives through 2010 when we anticipate a global program transitional grant budget of around $2.5M. Our two Global Program Officers (Gleb Raygorodetsky and Phrang Roy) will continue to provide leadership and support to these programs during the transition. During this transition we shall develop plans for a smaller global program from 2011, and we expect many of you to make input into this process. We are also beginning an evaluation designed to further reveal and share the impacts of Christensen’s global and regional grantmaking over the last five years. This evaluation will help guide our own on-going and future efforts, as well as encourage other investments in this growing field. Under the on-going global program, we shall continue to integrate the initiatives and struggles of our partners in our priority regions with global movements and processes to maintain the flow of inspiration and the power of networked change. And we shall seek to maintain momentum of the many changes in policy and rhetoric witnessed in recent years around biocultural diversity and indigenous peoples. Furthermore we shall explore how to take our work in such areas as food sovereignty forward in the context of new thinking about the global economy and human and planetary wellbeing. Transitional Themes: During 2009 and 2010 The Christensen Fund anticipates making grants of about $7m to global programs to consolidate the following gains made in recent years by our grantees (and by many others) through support for self-representation by indigenous peoples and transformative partnerships with their allies: o The practical application of the concepts of “biocultural diversity” and “resilience” which have rapidly gained recognition in international policy statements, educational programs, conferences and conservation programs. o The recognition of the significance of sacred places to renewing relationships between people and the Earth, and sustaining the biological richness and integrity of landscapes, defending the traditional custodians who are everywhere under threat from religious, economic, political and environmental fundamentalisms. o The growing recognition of the practical utility and delicate power of traditional peoples and western scientists creatively integrating knowledge systems for tackling complex problems through genuine partnerships. o Strengthening indigenous organizations and their partners in international institutions to secure implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. o Enhancing recognition of the necessarily central place of indigenous people in understanding and tackling climate change and supporting their visionary leadership as the world struggles towards Copenhagen. o Building on the potential for global social movements to partner deliciously with traditional farmers around issues of food sovereignty and agrobiodiversity, while building public awareness of the dangers of building global food systems upon narrow corporatized fossil-fuel dependent industrial agriculture. o Backing human imagination as stirred by globally renowned artists to disrupt, delight and tickle the deep processes of consciousness change now underway. Money and Change: At Christensen we never believed that we can or should drive change by spending money. On the contrary, our impact reflects efforts to honor and weave together countless visionary people who quietly seek ways to tread in greater symphony with Gaia, whether or not they are paid, recognized, organized, let alone the recipient of grants from a foundation in northern California. This new “one planet order”, to which we are all variously called, will be possible only if we can become more sensitive to truth and less driven by money. Going forward Christensen will seek ways of change making that are themselves ever less resource-intensive. At the same time we understand that access to resources matters for historically marginalized issues and peoples, and even in these difficult times we plan to give away more than $50m as grants over the next five years under our regional and global programs. Thank you and best wishes, Ken Wilson Executive Director |
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