Social Systems Change: A Key Capability of Transformational Charities

The sheer scale of some of the societal challenges we face today demands that while the charitable sector must continue to deliver support and programming, it must also reach beyond solving for symptoms and address the root causes of those issues. In short, the Transformational Charity strives to change social systems.

Junxion’s Transformational Charity framework sets out a range of operational structures and performance standards for contemporary charities. At the centre of the framework are five ‘Key Capabilities’ that guide the Transformational Charity to be more resilient and impactful. We’ve written about four in previous posts: Empowering Leadership, Supportive Operations, Strategic Agility, and Community Accountability. The fifth is Social Systems Change.

So too do businesses, as they’re increasingly expected to stand up for a social purpose. But this has always been the work of the charity sector—to address acute problems, and redress the chronic.

Tomes have been written on systems theory and change. Many models, frameworks, tools, and case studies are out there for your easy downloading and review. Yet there are some essentials that every Transformational Charity must consider….

Maintaining Capacity for the Acute

The problems of today cannot be ignored in pursuit of the solutions of tomorrow. Unless it’s the mandate of the charity to focus exclusively on systems change, leaders must continue the Transformational Charity’s work to address acute issues. 

The question is really to what degree will a Transformational Charity focus energy, resources, and capacity on social systems change. Perhaps it will simply share what it’s seeing and experiencing to others in its sector. Perhaps it will lend capacity or resources to collaborative, systems change work. Or perhaps it has the convening power to position itself as the backbone of a major social change effort.

Whatever the case, the Transformational Charity considers strategic contributions to social systems change, and plays its part in implementing solutions.

Mobilizing Knowledge

Supporting and influencing action across the system is often as simple as ensuring knowledge is mobilized. In every charity we work with, deep, meaningful expertise, won of years of hard, dedicated work, exists at the end of every branch on the organizational tree. Liberating that wealth of experience so that it can be shared with others across the organization and the system is in and of itself an important contribution.

Navigating Politics

Whether in the halls of power among elected representatives, or at the local scale amid community and identity politics, the Transformational Charity makes itself at home by avoiding or resolving conflicts and mobilizing support for the social systems change it seeks to bring about.

Sometimes, that can mean taking a back seat to others’ work; sometimes it can mean walking side by side with like-minded allies and peers. And sure, occasionally it can mean accepting the invitation, implied or expressed, to step into leadership and show others the way forward.

Social Systems Change is the fifth of five Key Capabilities we’ve identified as crucial to ensuring charities’ long-term success in a complex and crowded world. While there are certainly many models, frameworks, and tools of systems change, it can also simply be about right relationships, reciprocity, and accepting the call to lead if and when it comes. 

Interested in transforming your charity? Read our Transformational Charity Framework, an outline of the contemporary imperatives and capabilities charities need to develop to thrive for the next decade (and beyond.) We’ve also created an assessment to help your organization identify strength areas and improvement areas.