2017-2018: Listening Tour
Following Brexit and the election of Donald Trump, former USAID diplomat and conflict prevention practitioner Brian Stout conducted an independent “listening tour,” consulting with a wide range of activists, policy advocates, thinkers, artists, policymakers, funders, nonprofit leaders, and more in an effort at global sensemaking–to understand the moment we are in and illuminate pathways for transformation. An early distillation of findings and discussion questions is here.
2018-2019: Seeding a network
In 2018 and 2019, Brian partnered with Professor john a. powell of UC Berkeley to develop a concept note organized around building belonging, and hosted a series of “salons”: small-group conversations around the United States (in the Bay Area, Seattle, Washington DC, Detroit, Boston, and New York City) to workshop these ideas with a diverse range of practitioners, leaders, creatives, and thinkers. For the early draft Concept Note and list of invitees/participants, see here.
2020: Launch of Building Belonging Community of Practice
In March 2020, Building Belonging launched as a global community of practice on the Mighty Networks platform, inviting an inaugural founding cohort of sixteen practitioners of belonging from around the world.
At the same time we launched the Conversations on Transformation series, seeking to bring together field-builders and advanced practitioners in specific domains.
We hosted three cohorts roughly coinciding with the seasons, including the launch of our first Transformative Philanthropy Cohort. This was a time of growth, experimentation, emergence, and community-building.
2021-2022: Experiments in Governance: Stewardship and Sociocracy
In 2021 we formed our first Stewardship teams to set strategy and direction for the emerging community; our founding 2021 Stewardship team members are here; our 2022 Stewardship team is here. We adopted the principles of Sociocracy as our system of consent-based dynamic governance, and experimented with different organizational models for our distributed global network.
We continued to host cohorts and build community during this time, in addition to running a range of internal pilot projects exploring the deeper elements of transformation (on money and livelihoods; on parenting for social justice; on somatics and embodiment, and more).
2023-2024: Transition and re-launch
We conceived of 2023 as a time of intentional transition, harvesting, and rebuilding for the future. A stewardship team retreat in April 2023 laid out a set of recommendations to strengthen the community and clarify our Mission and focus areas.
We continued to advance programs in priority areas, hosting our third transformative philanthropy cohort and the inaugural gathering of the global Belonging @ Scale initiative, in Medellin, Colombia.
At the end of the year we formed our first year-long Core Team to lead our new strategic direction, comprising longtime Building Belonging members Christina Antonakos-Wallace, Leonie Smith, and Brian Stout, as well as Conversations on Transformation collaborator Kazu Haga.
In 2024 the new core team met in January to outline our goals and priorities for the year, focusing on key projects with transformative potential. To learn more about our current work, please visit our Projects.
2017-2018: Listening Tour
Following Brexit and the election of Donald Trump, former USAID diplomat and conflict prevention practitioner Brian Stout conducted an independent “listening tour,” consulting with a wide range of activists, policy advocates, thinkers, artists, policymakers, funders, nonprofit leaders, and more in an effort at global sensemaking–to understand the moment we are in and illuminate pathways for transformation. An early distillation of findings and discussion questions is here.
2018-2019: Seeding a network
In 2018 and 2019, Brian partnered with Professor john a. powell of UC Berkeley to develop a concept note organized around building belonging, and hosted a series of “salons”: small-group conversations around the United States (in the Bay Area, Seattle, Washington DC, Detroit, Boston, and New York City) to workshop these ideas with a diverse range of practitioners, leaders, creatives, and thinkers. For the early draft Concept Note and list of invitees/participants, see here.
2020: Launch of Building Belonging Community of Practice
In March 2020, Building Belonging launched as a global community of practice on the Mighty Networks platform, inviting an inaugural founding cohort of sixteen practitioners of belonging from around the world.
At the same time we launched the Conversations on Transformation series, seeking to bring together field-builders and advanced practitioners in specific domains.
We hosted three cohorts roughly coinciding with the seasons, including the launch of our first Transformative Philanthropy Cohort. This was a time of growth, experimentation, emergence, and community-building.
2021-2022: Experiments in Governance: Stewardship and Sociocracy
In 2021 we formed our first Stewardship teams to set strategy and direction for the emerging community; our founding 2021 Stewardship team members are here; our 2022 Stewardship team is here. We adopted the principles of Sociocracy as our system of consent-based dynamic governance, and experimented with different organizational models for our distributed global network.
We continued to host cohorts and build community during this time, in addition to running a range of internal pilot projects exploring the deeper elements of transformation (on money and livelihoods; on parenting for social justice; on somatics and embodiment, and more).
2023-2024: Transition and re-launch
We conceived of 2023 as a time of intentional transition, harvesting, and rebuilding for the future. A stewardship team retreat in April 2023 laid out a set of recommendations to strengthen the community and clarify our Mission and focus areas.
We continued to advance programs in priority areas, hosting our third transformative philanthropy cohort and the inaugural gathering of the global Belonging @ Scale initiative, in Medellin, Colombia.
At the end of the year we formed our first year-long Core Team to lead our new strategic direction, comprising longtime Building Belonging members Christina Antonakos-Wallace, Leonie Smith, and Brian Stout, as well as Conversations on Transformation collaborator Kazu Haga.
In 2024 the new core team met in January to outline our goals and priorities for the year, focusing on key projects with transformative potential. To learn more about our current work, please visit our Projects.
