Towards 2022: taking stock of a year of partnerships and wishes for the future

We have just left behind a year whose repercussions we do not yet know and will extend over time. This situation in which we find ourselves does not cease to invite us to share, dialogue and forge alliances. Only together can we accelerate a necessary transformation that guides us towards responsibility and mutual care. Our team in Spain and France – collaborators, volunteers and board of trustees – continues with all the motivation, even more, to make this 2022 that has just begun, a year of hope, constructive responses and, also, why not, moments of fulfillment.

A year of connections and (re)encounters

In 2021, despite the persistent health crisis, we have come up with new ways to create bonds, meet and share learning. We have strengthened ties and initiated many new ones. The strength lies in the boost that our ecosystems give us. What we believe in is the true engine that always moves us.

The Daniel Carasso Fellowship, our commitment to support and attract young research talent in our country, has had its first edition in 2021. The programme will contribute to the career development of the two award-winning researchers: Raquel Ajates, focused on open-source research for native seeds, and Daniel Gaitán, with his public procurement project as a lever for systemic change, great contributions to the transition towards more sustainable food systems. Both received a statuette designed by the artist Jaume Plensa at the ceremony.

Cristina Pato, one of the five winners of the 2020 Committed Artist Award, was the artist who composed the musical program for the Daniel Carasso Fellowship award ceremony, performed by Cary Rosa Varona and Isbel Noa, on cello and piano respectively. More artistic connections were created this year: for the first time, the five award-winning artists – Neïl Beloufa, Patrick Bouchain, Cristina Pato, Santiago Cirugeda and Julio Jara – met in Paris to share and begin collaborating with commitments to social transformation.

Zaragoza hosted this year the seminar of the Territorialized Food Systems (SAT) program, which brought together the projects selected in the 2020 call to share their progress and check the possibilities of growth of the projects. In the same city, in parallel, the first meeting of our program was held TerrAlimenta, bringing together representatives of the Local Action Groups (LAGs) selected for their transition to sustainable food systems, incorporating a systemic vision of their processes. In addition, we are excited to tell you that this year Alimentta, a think tank promoted by the Foundation for the food transition, has been presented. Alimentta has produced 6 short podcasts that address the challenges of the food transition, as well as a good number of scientific articles that can be freely consulted on its website.

Numerous meetings have also been promoted to continue building and exchanging experiences. The PLANEA network is taking root more and more strongly in the more than 50 centres in which it is present. This year began its third school year and is generating an ecosystem of projects that promote and respond to an empathetic, critical and meaningful education. There are already thirteen pilot centers and almost a hundred collaborating centers.

A year of alliances and support: from the person to the planet and vice versa

With our focus on people, in 2021 we launched, through the Recovery Plan, the Caja de Resistencias program, an initiative that seeks to help, from a small age, artists who carry out their work outside the usual channels and who have seen their careers affected as a result of the pandemic. Another exciting support this year has been the start of the first edition of Complement Directo, a program of scholarships and accompaniment to gradually strengthen a community committed to cultural and enriching mediation around art and education. In alliance with the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (MNCARS) and hablarenarte, we have seen the birth of MAR, a cultural mediation platform as a key tool to blur boundaries between institutions and civil society.

The promotion and creation of alliances in transversal and philanthropic projects promoted by the Foundation has been another great scenario this year: The Spanish philanthropic coalition for the climate, Foundations for the Climate, which we promote together with the Spanish Association of Foundations (AEF), has continued to grow. There are already more than 130 signatory foundations and their mobilization accompanies those led by Philea in Europe and Wings worldwide. In addition, together with the AEF and the Mott Foundation, two calls were developed for the programme to support the creation of Community Foundations, an uncommon model in Spain but highly effective as a promoter of new forms of philanthropy for territorial development.

This has also been a year of reflection and work on how to articulate quality support for our projects. We have finally done so through Cartae, a training programme that will give them tools for their long-term sustainability. That same desire to put our resources at the service of transformative projects has led us to dedicate the entire year to listening to the Spanish impact investing ecosystem to design our strategy in this area in Spain. 2022 will see a number of major projects linked to this strategy, which seeks maximum coherence between our investments and our grants, take shape. We have developed, together with Stone Soup, a unique and proprietary model for evaluating and piloting systemic impact that we are progressively applying to our programs. We have also participated in ESADE’s Communities of Practice for measuring and managing impact, both in Europe and Spain.

In addition, together with the AEF, two calls were developed for the program to support the creation of Community Foundations, an uncommon model in our country but highly effective as a promoter of new forms of philanthropy for territorial development.

During 2021 we have continued to shape the collaborative space project that we are developing in Madrid, dedicated to philanthropy and the social and solidarity economy. In 2020 we acquired a property in the Delicias neighbourhood with the aim of turning it into a meeting place, completely eco-designed and which will house gardens, an auditorium, coworking spaces and residencies for artists and researchers. We have already shared a preview of what this exciting space will be in the 2020 Impact Investment Report that we launched last November.

During 2021, maintaining coherence between investment and social mission, the Foundation is immersed in an innovative real estate project. At the end of 2020 we acquired a property in Madrid that he plans to renovate to create a collaborative space, dedicated to patronage and the social and solidarity economy and thus contribute to social transformation.

Towards a fairer and fuller 2022

With almost a decade of experience in Spain and feeling part of an increasingly mobilized ecosystem, we want to continue sharing our learnings and methods with as many people as possible. 2022 gives us a new opportunity to continue the development of newly created programmes and initiatives and also to consolidate those that already have a trajectory within the Foundation, with the illusion of growing together with the projects that move us and the people, minds and hearts that promote them.

We also hope that this will be a year of greater impetus for the sharing of accumulated knowledge. It is an effort that we have been developing for a few years and we see that it is worth multiplying the potential impact of Open Source learning dissemination strategies, so that other agents can find tools, models, methodologies, sources of reflection and, why not, inspiration, as well as contacts and people with whom to co-construct new imaginaries and models.

All our hopes for this new year are at the service of an ecological, inclusive and fulfilling transformation. We hope that these feelings as we begin the new year are shared!

Credits: congratulations by Omar Ibrahim, animation by Sara Kontar, with L’atelier des artistes en exil.