Changemaking Leadership

Magdalena is catalyzing a changemaking ethos and practice in communities overlooked by traditional public and private philanthropic and other social institutions. Through the participatory grantmaking process of FemFund, which targets marginalized communities, she is upending traditional philanthropic practices, turning grant seekers into co-creators and decision-makers, and fostering solidarity among women of all ages across multiple social divides, who gain agency and voice in solving problems confronting their communities and geographies.

FemFund's model challenges traditional grantmaking frameworks, which often rely on rigid, top-down processes that prioritize the funder’s expectations over the needs of communities. By extending decision-making into the hands of applicants, Magdalena transforms a static philanthropic procedure into an empowering, democratic tool rather than a bureaucratic exercise. 

Read more about Magdalena and FemFund.

Li An is redefining how societies care for water by transforming the health of a river into a shared civic goal: making rivers drinkable again. Her idea replaces technical, fragmented approaches to water pollution with a simple, intuitive norm: "Would you drink from your river?" that turns ecological well-being into a personal and collective responsibility. 

This shift allows communities to reconnect with rivers as living systems and positions drinkability as a universal indicator of shared prosperity, environmental justice, and long-term regeneration. To make this shift possible, Li An developed a methodology that brings people from awareness to collective action. She creates spaces where communities experience the river directly, witness its beauty and degradation, and rediscover their connection to it. Along the way, she mobilizes local actors, from schools to mayors to farmers, ensuring that each walk is co-created with the stakeholders responsible for the river's governance and care.

From these experiences emerge civic pacts in which communities, institutions, and municipalities commit to the protection and regeneration of their rivers. Some of these alliances have grown into larger governance structures. By embedding drinkable or swimmable rivers into local climate and biodiversity strategies, piloting “swimability” programs, and contributing to shared budgets, these municipalities demonstrate how soft norms can evolve into coordinated systemic action.

Read more about Li An and Drinkable Rivers. 

Kristina stimulates a cultural transformation of global foreign policy towards feminist values. She does this by connecting a feminist approach in social sciences with ministries and the active thought-leader civil society.

The goal is to overcome dominant political thought patterns and patriarchal conventions. In doing so, she fosters an increase in peacebuilding, the support of human rights, and the elimination of gender stereotypes.

Read more about Kristina and the Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy.

Markus has designed a new approach to mental healthcare that enables those with severe mental health challenges such as psychosis, personality disorders, and severe depression, to focus on skill sharing and co-creation in the arts to build self-confidence, resilience, and community. His model severs the often-debilitating link between diagnosis, illness, and identity – especially for those just leaving hospital care.

Markus has designed a viable alternative to deficit-based mental healthcare by prioritizing clients’ passions and strengths in “diagnosis-free” spaces, shifting how hospitals and therapists talk about their patients and care, and building partnerships with and between organizations that work with wellbeing and the arts.

Read more about Markus and Kukunori.