Foundation For Our Future

Board of Directors | Partners

Mission

The mission of the Foundation for Our Future (FFOF) is to support new learning, institutional change management, organizational development, research and capacity development for sustainability, utilizing a variety of strategic consultative processes, next generation learning tool development, strategic communication and leadership development strategies - nationally and internationally.

Philosophy and History

The Foundation for Our Future was founded to build individual and organizational capacity to look beyond what is known and to cultivate new ways of seeing, learning, and thinking - which will allow transformation of the ways we affect the world around us.

Inn at Shelburne FarmsThe founders of the Foundation for Our Future created the Center for a Sustainable Future at Shelburne Farms, in Shelburne Vermont. Shelburne Farms is seen as one of the world's sustainable treasures dedicated to the creation of a working learning model of sustainability on a historically significant 400-acre organic dairy fa rm on the shores of Lake Champlain. It is a perfect place for a complementary sustainable development R&D center. Shelburne Farms provides the Foundation for Our Future a placed-based center that serves as a  working laboratory and gathering venue to engage high level thinkers from around the globe to tackle our most pressing sustainability questions.

Coach Barms at Shelburne FarmsWe are serious about moving institutions around the globe to develop more sustainable solutions in the work that they do. The dynamic cooperative teams involved with the Foundation for Our Future have decades of experience and devoted significant energies to large system changes focused on sustainable development. We are continually reminded of the need for individual leadership transformation, and the significance of the reinforcing loop between individual leadership and large system transformation. To meet the challenges ahead we must change the very nature of how individuals think about and experience our current and future challenges.

Today's problems have a set of common characteristics that will require some form of innovation based on adaptation of current solutions and the development of new approaches. New knowledge is being created every moment of every day. What often doesn't keep pace is the creation of new learning to effectively utilize the new knowledge to solve our most complex challenges. A strategy of developing economically viable pathways for gradual transition is key, based on collaboration, shared cross-disciplinary insights and an openness to think systemically and out-of-the-box. This transformation must include both current and future leaders.

Jack Padalino (FFOF Director) and Keith Wheeler (FFOF President) participating in a community sustainability training program in Poland.The Foundation for Our Future brings together highly experienced scientists and researchers from across many disciplines, educators, technologists, government representatives, futurists, civil society representatives, business people, the media and spiritual leaders. We work to support institutional capacity and leadership development working in partnership with client institutions on real world problems. Together we develop customized solutions to the complex array of learning and knowledge management issues associated with sustainable institutional change and capacity development.

Goals and Strategies

The goals of the Foundation for Our Future are to:

• Develop capacity for New Learning for sustainable solutions. Our audience's include individuals, communities, organizations - both governmental and non-governmental, education (both higher and K-12) and the private sector.
• Identify and connect emerging sustainable solutions and new technologies as part of capacity enhancement.
• Develop networks and communities of practice that support institutional transformation toward sustainability;
• Identify emerging issues in the arena of sustainable development;
• Create learning tools that support individual and institutional transformation toward sustainable development;
• Create institutional communication strategies, both internal and external, that better articulate change strategies toward sustainability;
• Develop management strategies for change toward sustainability;
• Evaluate and analyze the impact of sustainability policies, learning strategies, training and practices.

The Foundation for Our Future uses a variety of strategies to achieve our mission and goals. These include, but are not limited to:

• Face-to-face and virtual consultancies, institutes, retreats, and seminars for capacity development;
• Market driven, demand-side situation analysis;
• Scenario planning and forecasting;
• Creating partnership opportunities, collaboration models, and communication strategies necessary for scaling transformation;
• Publication of learning tools, change management processes and sustainable
• science content analysis in multimedia and web formats;
• Use of interactive multimedia for building leadership capacity;
• World-class advisory and partner network;
• Use of continuous improvement methodologies employing demand side evaluation of processes and outcomes.