Our Senior Strategic Designer, Annemarie, has been driving impactful work with the Van Leer Foundation’s Early Childhood Development Portfolio in the Netherlands. Through her 6 month secondment, she has leveraged CHÔRA’s #PortfolioApproach to create dynamic, relationship-driven spaces that connect people, organisations, and knowledge. This approach has brought fresh insights into the evolving role of philanthropy in supporting systemic change, and we look forward to seeing how this work continues to shape the landscape for early childhood development in the Netherlands.
Since last April I have been supporting the Van Leer Foundation in an interim role as Portfolio Representative for the Netherlands, as a secondment from CHÔRA Design. Through Portfolio partnerships, Van Leer focuses on ensuring a good start for children and their parents/caregivers. Now that the permanent team is almost in place, this may be a good moment to share some of my reflections. One thing that almost always comes first when discussing Dynamic Portfolio Management, is the question of ‘What is a Portfolio’? One of the most common notions (outside the financial industry) is that of a portfolio as a ‘thing’ - a collection of projects. Van Leer shows a much more intuitive and strategic use of a Portfolio as an instrument; an interactive, relational, learning & action space where the role of the Foundation is intertwined with a network of people, organisations, activities & knowledge. Relating to a Portfolio in this way sets you up to manage a space in between you & the world, and to dynamically manage yourself in there as the relationship is under constant change. The Van Leer Foundation’s work in the Netherlands thanks its performance to an incredible set of close strategic partners like Ian Mostert, Armand Paardekooper Overman, Tessa Roseboom, Maarten Fischer, Katja van Groesen Eric Steegers, Josine Vermeulen Holsen, Firma Twist - Hét bureau voor maatschappelijke verandering to name a few. There are many people & initiatives focused on early childhood in the Netherlands that make change happen in both formal and informal spaces. What seems challenging is the tissue - the social (technical) infrastructure that connects problem to policy, and ensures the many parts are collectively focused on the experience of children & their caregivers. This became a central question in the Portfolio Strategy drafting process and made us reflect on the role of philanthropy; how can our investments improve the health of the system and enable others to play their role? I’m excited about the Foundation co-starting a Funding Collective that engages with this question Augeo Foundation, @Femi, Kinderpostzegels, Noaber, Janivo Stichting, Adessium Foundation. Recently we hosted our first Portfolio Sensemaking session on 'The connection between generations in the Netherlands', with the hypothesis that intergenerational dynamics can play a role in the wellbeing of children & their parents. The Sensemaking session created the relationships, insights & programmatic starting points for the Foundation. These social and structured forms of learning are essential capabilities for the dynamic management of a Portfolio and ensure that we are constantly leaning into as well as influencing the emerging dynamics of the social systems we are part of. With a big thank you to the amazing team at Van Leer Jolanda D., Raul Corrêa-Smith, Lisette de Gelder, Rushda Majeed, Andrea Torres Sansotta, Michael Feigelson, Hannah Rothschild, Irina Ivan-van der Kwaak and so many others.