October 2026
There's a shift we're hearing more and more from clients.
The core problem people bring to us is becoming less, "How do we make our program better?" and more, "What's happening in the system around us, and what role can we play in changing it?"
The questions sound like: Who else is working on this issue? Are we pulling in the same direction? What are the real barriers to progress? Which levers are most likely to create lasting change? Where can our effort, influence and resources make the biggest difference?
Across the sector, funders and for-purpose organisations are increasingly lifting their eyes from their own patch and connecting with others in the ecosystem they are seeking to influence. And they're getting comfortable with a freeing idea: you don't have to own the whole shift to make a real contribution to it.
What we heard in Brisbane
At the Philanthropy Australia Conference last month, this was everywhere. Speakers from here and overseas kept circling back to the same ideas: work together; sit with the complexity instead of smoothing it over; make bigger bets; use every form of capital available, not just grants.
One of the clearest signs of this trend towards systems was a new addition to the program: a convening gathering existing networks and communities of practice from across Australia’s giving ecosystem. It offered funders and investors an easy way into groups already tackling problems together. Collaboration isn’t the whole of systems change, but it’s often where it starts: less going it alone, more joining up with others who are already in the work.
The lone-hero funder, planting a flag on a problem and calling it theirs, is looking more and more out of date. So too, is the idea that a single not-for-profit or charity can drive lasting change on its own. Increasingly, progress is coming from groups of organisations working towards shared goals, each contributing a different piece of the puzzle.
A shift that’s been building over time
We've been part of this shift for a while. Some years ago in 2022, our Endowments for Impact workshops helped boards and trustees think about how their whole corpus, not just their grants, could work for impact. That led to the Endowments for Impact Challenge: nine philanthropies coordinated by Reichstein Foundation and Impact Investing Australia going to open tender together to find mission-aligned investment advisers. Nobody could have moved that market alone.
More recently, we helped Philanthropy Australia shape Strategy 2033, engaging in deep consultation across all stakeholders about what lies ahead. The strategy landed on four big shifts for the peak body, including from service delivery to ecosystem building, from knowledge output to knowledge exchange, and from benefiting philanthropy to strengthening civil society.
That's a peak body choosing to put the whole system, not its own members, at the centre of the story. We are proud to have helped them get there.
What systems work actually looks like
Systems work can sound lofty. In practice, it’s a lot of listening: many voices, competing views and big questions with no tidy answer.
The value comes from making sense of it all. We map the system, work out what’s driving outcomes, and test which levers are most likely to shift things, now and over time. That helps organisations see where they sit and what role they can realistically play. It might mean getting the right people in a room, questioning assumptions no one has checked in years, or helping a sector work together instead of solving the same problem separately.
Three recent projects show what that looks like.
The WISE Learn Book, with Westpac Foundation. Work integration social enterprises (WISEs) create jobs for people shut out of the mainstream labour market. Yet they've largely operated outside Australia's employment services system. The Learn Book draws on two decades of Westpac Foundation's work and extensive consultation across the WISE ecosystem and both sides of the capital equation. This process was able to surface some key blockages and assumptions holding the sector back, and bring to light new ways of understanding WISE models. It gives funders a practical guide to backing WISEs well. It gives WISE practitioners the language and framing for how to convey their needs to philanthropy. And, it makes the case for the better data, policy settings and shared advocacy the whole sector needs.
Catalytic Capital, with the Paul Ramsay Foundation. Australia has enormous pools of capital, but too little of it reaches the places that need it most. Working across investors, intermediaries, philanthropies and practitioners, we helped map an emerging part of the impact investing ecosystem and identify the role of catalytic capital within it. Our report introduced a shared definition and framework for understanding catalytic capital: patient, risk-tolerant money that can de-risk an idea enough for bigger investors to follow. By creating common language and a clearer picture of the market opportunity, the work aims to help more actors move in the same direction. The goal isn't one deal or one investor. It's creating the conditions for momentum across the whole impact capital market.
Building on Unlocking Generosity, with Minderoo Foundation. Minderoo's Unlocking Generosity research found Australia could unlock up to $12 billion more in donations by 2030, if the advisers, accountants, lawyers and fundraisers around donors were better equipped to talk about giving. We're currently in the thick of the consultation phase mapping the ecosystem and undertaking significant stakeholder consultation as well as reviewing the efficacy of each lever and identifying the key roles required in order to find a unverified, scalable and sustainable solution. The generosity is there. The pathways aren't. Watch this space!
What we're learning
Systems work asks different things of everyone involved, including us. A few lessons we’re learning along the way:
The listening is the work. In systems work, consultation is more than information gathering. The value isn’t just what we can learn from these conversations, but also what participants are also able to learn from each other. The process of bringing different perspectives into the room, testing assumptions together and building shared understanding is often where the real change begins. The final report matters, but so do the conversations that shape it.
Build patience into the process. Systems shift over years, not grant cycles. If a funder's grant terms, board reporting and idea of success all run on twelve months, good intentions get squeezed. Longer horizons have to be written into how the work is funded, not just hoped for.
Count your contribution, not your credit. When many players move a system, no one can claim the result alone. That makes measuring impact harder, not optional. The better question isn't "did we cause this?" but "what changed because we were part of it?" Funders who get comfortable with that question tend to make braver choices.
Two lenses, one system. Through all of this, we keep the bifocal lens GoodWolf has always used. We look at those providing capital and those putting it to work for change, and we design for both. Systems change stalls when either side is missing from the room.
Growing to meet the moment
This is a moment of real opportunity, and real need. It's also a moment of change for our team. And in this post, we want to celebrate the contribution of our outgoing Director, Nina Yousefpour, who is stepping up to lead the Office of Social Impact in Queensland Treasury. We'll miss her deeply, and we're grateful for everything she has built.
To carry that work forward, we're looking for a new Director to strengthen our impact measurement practice and our systems thinking approach. Someone who gets energised by big, messy questions, and by the many people it takes to answer them.
If that sounds like you, or someone you know, find out more here. And if you're wrestling with a system-sized question of your own, we'd love to talk.
