Throughout our sprint processes we’ve been capturing the big existential questions that sit alongside all things philanthropy (and life).
Existential questions are a deep inquiry that explores the meaning, purpose, and nature of human (or in this case - philanthropy’s) existence.
We’ve got a bank of 300 existential questions that we’ve been collecting over the last year. You can read more about the process here (link to the other blog). We’ve spent some time looking back at the growing bank of questions and looking at the different categories they might fit into. They range from those about decision making and power to ethics and diversity to relationships, processes and methodologies.
But 300 is a lot of big questions to share at once, so instead, here are 30 of our favourite ones that we wanted to share with people. Both to give a flavour and bring some of the questions to life, but also to open up some of the big questions it can be hard to know what to do with.
1.What does consent look like in the recommendation and changemaker selection process?
2.How do we avoid being extractive while modelling a sense of a collective network and shared knowledge?
3.Is everyone a change-maker?
4.What about the men? How do you know if a man has feminine values?
5.What’s our approach to transparency regarding the sharing of names of those we support?
6.What really is Thirty Percy’s role?
7.Is money or organising more valuable?
8.Is it okay not to disagree and work only with those we’re always aligned with?
9.As funders, should we have a deep relationship with those we fund?
10.Do we have time?
11.How does Thirty Percy remove the shame and guilt of receiving money?
12.Can you grow trust at scale?
13.Would it be more ethical to do an open call?
14.How does the use of different digital platforms influence the sprint experience?
15.Does a guided and held process like this create too much dependency for the non-sprint time?
16.Is it enough to be clear about emergence rather than articulating the architecture of support?