filia does a base-building year
We can’t sugar-coat it: Pandemic, climate crisis, wars, the rise of right-wing nationalist governments, and the rise of anti-feminist movements have been challenging us for years. Each of these events would be heavy in itself, the overlap and linkage makes everything even more difficult. And yet! We at filia are sure that we can make the world a little better here and there. By supporting those who are working on solutions on the ground and helping, bit by bit, to break up unjust structures and create new ones.
We started out as a funding foundation. For some years now, the operational part of our work has been growing – for example, in cooperation with our sister foundations in Central and Eastern Europe or in our empowerment programs in Germany. For filia, operational support means that we not only pass on money, but also work on projects ourselves. That’s enjoyable – but also more work. That’s why our team has grown a lot in recent years. In addition, there has been a generation change and the new management team has been in office for just one year.
We need a good base
Why are we telling all this? Because it has an impact on our work. We realize that it takes time to find a well-rehearsed structure that fits the new and growing tasks. And given the challenges described above – pandemic, war, climate – we sometimes wonder how we can do our work well at all.
That’s why organizational development is on the agenda for next year: filia is doing a base-building year. We want to create clarity and define and digitalize processes and structures that enable us to work reliably, safely and self-efficiently. We want to continue to grow together as a foundation with its various stakeholders and create simple communication channels. For our day-to-day business, this means that some things we will resume later (e.g., the new rounds of calls for proposals), while others will move forward (e.g., the development of a project database and a controlling structure).
Our feminist self-image
We have also started to discuss our feminist self-image in a series of webinars with donors, committee members and other filia supporters: What does racism-critical feminism mean? How trans-inclusive does filia see itself? How consciously do we deal with power structures? What of this will find its way into a strategic plan?
Our goal is that at the end of the base-building year we have built a stable foundation from which we can continue with feminist power: so that the world can become more just bit by bit.
