Cartæ: a new tailor-made training programme to accompany our projects

We are aware of the favourable impact that accompaniment has when it comes to supporting the projects that are part of our ecosystem. Beyond financial support, providing added qualitative values, such as advice, listening, training and networking, is essential to ensure that these transformative projects can be sustained in the long term and that the ecosystem that we all make up is more aware and stronger. From the Foundation, we have articulated this support with the creation of the Cartæ program, which we started with the objective and hope that it can further strengthen our Citizen Art and Sustainable Food projects.

Putting projects at the centre of our activity and strengthening ecosystems, ensuring their sustainability, are our priorities in accompanying initiatives that pursue systemic change in our two main lines of work: Citizen Art and Sustainable Food. We have been aware since our inception that one-off financial support, in the form of a one-, two- or three-year grant, is often not enough to ensure that initiatives manage to build their true economic sustainability and multiply their capacity for transformation. Over the years we have learned, specifically and with the projects, about the accompaniments that could provide effectiveness and scope. The review of previous experiences has been instrumental in identifying which tools may be valuable at an overall level. It will be listening and dialogue that will give us the keys during the shared path to strengthen each initiative on a more individual level.

Thus, Cartæ arises as an accompaniment, co-built between the entities, our team of expert instructors in Sustainable Food and Citizen Art, and the Foundation, which is both effective and coherent. The aim is to provide a range of methodological tools to promote the economic sustainability of projects, their ability to scale social and environmental impact and their potential to contribute to systemic change in the long term.

A map with multiple destinations for committed projects

Cartæ is an image word that has a referent in French (carte) and in Latin (charta), referring to maps. These are a good symbol of the path, with several possible and ever-changing destinations, that we are preparing to travel together with the projects. This “map” is the way in which we visualize the network of interconnected nodes that we want to build, both between the projects and between the different themes in which our accompaniment is articulated. A constellation of knowledge, people and initiatives that live their dream of building a better world.

Specifically, at the time of starting a Cartæ accompaniment, a first phase of information collection is essential, where dialogue, the review of previous experiences and the knowledge of experts can contribute to identifying the specific needs of each project. This is how an adequate and adaptable itinerary is defined, as a whole, that takes into account the original essence of the project and at the same time external voices that contribute to strengthening it. This co-design will be carried out between our instructors (active professionals), the Foundation’s team and the staff of the project or entity that requests or proposes the accompaniment. Cartæ is conceived as a repertoire of resources where each project can find the help it requires, depending on its needs and also its availability.

A constellation of possibilities to move forward with a firm step

Through the graphic imaginary of Cartæ, we have conceived the themes that make up the program in the form of a constellation, starting from a common node that can be useful for all projects and that has to do with legal-financial advice, governance, theory of change and impact evaluation. From the center of this constellation emanate four nodes of themes: the Relations with the outside world —to provide tools in terms of communication and awareness to decision-makers—the Economic stability —providing knowledge and skills to ensure the financial sustainability of the project in the long term, knowing how to raise and diversify funds—the Resilience and transition —to address the need for digital transformation and ecological and social transition of their organizations— and A learning community to empower all the agents of the ecosystemto

In addition, other more specific accompaniments may be created from time to time aligned with particular needs of Sustainable Food, Citizen Art or others.

Various types of accompaniment

Cartæ offers training in several modalities, with different degrees of periodicity, specificity and customization, so that they can be adapted to the needs of each project. There will be keynote sessions on basic, broad and general topics, such as legal structures or basic communication, as well as meetings to collect learning, with a participatory format, where answers will be generated from dialogue and sharing.

More specific and personalised support can take the form of short, one-off advice – for a specific topic, at a given time – or long-term personalised advice. In these cases, we have a series of partners specialized in each topic, who are already part of our ecosystem and share with the Foundation its values and its plural and caring philosophy for people and the planet, as well as demanding and ambitious in favor of systemic change.

Cartæ is the most committed support program we have developed to date. We hope that this fruit of past learning will give rise to other future learning that will help us to always remain adaptable and in motion, putting all our knowledge and enthusiasm – and that of our ecosystem – within reach of the projects we promote. Because it is the people behind each of them who are building that more sustainable and just society that we imagine together and that we need so much.