Tuesday 24th March 2026
System Shift Collaborative
Sydney Collider
Yirranma Place, 262 Liverpool St,
Darlinghurst NSW 2010, Australia
Welcome to the 2026 gathering of the International Funder Collaborative, convened by System Shift. We call these convenings Colliders because they are designed to bring people, ideas, experiences and insights together into a creative, generative collision.
The International Collaborative, which is gathering in Sydney this week, has a clutch of ambitious foundations from Australia, the UK and Denmark at its core; but it is also part of a much wider international community of system-shifting organisations and inspiring practitioners from around the world.
We, at System Shift, believe that small initiatives can contain the seeds and stories of much bigger changes to much larger systems. Today we’re going to look at how we might work together in place - neighbourhoods and towns, on Country and across landscapes - to plant the seeds of deeper change within our economies.
Part of the ‘promise of place’ is that it offers us an opportunity to get some purchase on the wider economic forces disrupting our lives. But for change to really take root, we need real-world demonstrators to show how economies can be made more productive and joyful. How do we create the conditions to allow local models to spread and scale?
Speakers
Attendees
09.45-10.15
Arrivals
Tea, coffee and breakfast
10.15 - 10.30
Welcome to Country
Performed by Craig Madden, proud Gadigal man and representative of the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council
10.30 - 10:40
Welcome to the day
Performed by Craig Madden, proud Gadigal man and representative of the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council
Kristy Muir, CEO, Paul Ramsay Foundation
Charlie Leadbeater, Executive Director, System Shift
Setting the scene for rethinking our economies from the ground up.
10.40 - 11:40
Session 1:
Visions and purpose: Jeff Cyr and Jocelyn King in Conversation
Many people feel economic systems are failing people, places and the environment. Yet as the writer Mark Fisher remarked: “It’s easier to imagine the end of the world than it is to imagine the end of capitalism.” How can we imagine practical alternatives to the dominant economic model and then act on those ideas by creating institutions based on more inclusive, regenerative ways of investing and producing? How can you work with the current system in order to shift capital to better serve people and places? In this session we will be joined by two people who work at the intersection of capital and community:
Jeff Cyr, CEO, Raven Indigenous Capital
Jocelyn King, Chairperson, First Australians Capital Ltd
Charlie Leadbeater, Executive Director, System Shift (chair)
11:40 - 12:00
Break
12.00 - 12.45
Session 2:
Putting down roots: growing new economies from within
Investment from outside communities, in whatever form it takes, can only ever achieve so much. It needs to put down roots. Lasting transformation comes when outside investment unlocks assets in the community and grows or redirects existing flows of resources. Money is vital to kickstart change - but it must also be combined with capacity building, convening and impact networks to sustain change.
Georgia Mathews, Community Philanthropy Consultant and Advisor to Community Foundations Australia
Hanna Ebeling, CEO, Social Enterprise Finance Australia (Sefa)
Liz Yeo, Chief of Alliances, Paul Ramsay Foundation (chair)
12.45 - 13.45
Lunch
13.45 - 14:30
Session 3:
Visible Attractors: signposting a different, better economy
We need tangible, ‘visible attractors’ - real world demonstrators of new ideas which show people how economies can become productive and joyful. Visible attractors emerge in places which are ahead of the curve, often in overlooked margins of the mainstream economy. In this session we will hear from two people working to create these kinds of practical demonstrators.
Karrina Nolan, Founder and Executive Director, Original Power Matt Pfahlert, Co-founder & CEO, Australian Centre for Rural Economies (ACRE)
Penny Dakin, Executive Director, Communities, Minderoo Foundation
14:30 - 15:30
Session 4:
All Together Now: orchestrating collective change
Discussions about investment often boil down to whether investors can get financial returns. What if we shifted the idea of what is returned, to whom, so that economic actors returned more to communities than they extracted from them? What if returns could take the form of richer human connections or thriving natural eco-systems?
Bill Mithen and Annie Smits, Co-CEOs, Neighbourhood Economics
Kaj Löfgren, the CEO of the trailblazing Regen Melbourne
Charlie Leadbeater, Executive Director, System Shift
15:30 - 15:50
Break
15:50 - 16.35
Session 5:
Creating the conditions for success: what part can we each play?
This interactive session will offer a way to bring together all of the questions, insights and ideas surfaced so far from Australia, Canada, Denmark and beyond, to inform an agenda for action.
In an open dialogue (a ‘fishbowl’ format) we will invite guests in the room to lead the conversation. People will take a turn offering up their own reflections from the day, before passing the microphone on to someone else from the audience.
Kicking the dialogue off will be:
Andy Baker, Head of Vibrant and Connected Communities, Minderoo Foundation
Liz Yeo, Chief of Alliances, Paul Ramsay Foundation
Jocelyn King, Chairperson, First Australians Capital (FAC)
Charlie Leadbeater, Executive Director, System Shift (chair)
16:35 - 16:45
Closing: Reflections
17:00
Departures for Collider Dinner
Coach transfer provided
17:30
Arrival for Collider Dinner at the Bangarra Dance Theatre, Sydney Harbor
20:15
Formal evening concludes but guests are welcome to mingle until 21:00
Investing in Place: How to build a community-led economy
Tuesday 24th March
Location
Yirranma Place, 262 Liverpool St,
Darlinghurst
Visit here for more information on how to get to Yirranma Place (includes closest parking station, public transport etc. Note that there is no parking onsite)
Upon arrival report to reception.