Issue 05 | What Different Actually Looks Like

Over the past few weeks this newsletter has named some uncomfortable things. The power hiding in proposals. The participation that isn't really participation. The budget lines that tell the truth about whose knowledge counts. The language we've learned to sanitise so our work stays fundable.

And I know what some of you are sitting with: this all makes sense, but what do I actually do on Monday morning?

This issue is for that question.

There's a concept I return to again and again in my own practice — constructive complicity.

It's not a comfortable idea. It's not meant to be. It means recognising that most of us don't have the luxury of working only in perfectly aligned organisations, with perfectly resourced timelines, and funders who share all our values. We have bills to pay. Teams depending on us. Communities who need the program to exist even if the conditions aren't ideal.

Constructive complicity isn't about excusing harm. It's about recognising where you sit , and choosing redistribution over purity, wherever that's possible, with whatever power you actually hold.

Because here's what I've learned across fifteen years of this work: the micro-decisions compound.

The budget line you sneak in for community stipends. The question you ask in the meeting — whose voices are missing from this conversation? The language you push back on in the proposal draft. The wisdom fund you build into the architecture before anyone can remove it. None of these feel like transformation in the moment. But they add up. They create precedent. They shift what's normal inside an institution, slowly and then suddenly.

So what does different actually look like?

It looks like a fundraiser who builds a "participatory review process" budget line into every proposal — not because the funder asked for it, but because once it's in, it's harder to remove.

It looks like a program designer who starts every design process by asking what is already working here that we don't fully understand yet — before a single needs assessment is commissioned.

It looks like a consultant on a three-week contract who names their assumptions explicitly in the proposal, flags what they don't know, and describes the community they're writing about with dignity rather than deficit.

It looks like a funder who reads a proposal and asks — where is the community in this budget? — and means it.

None of these are revolutionary acts in isolation. Together, over time, they reshape what's possible.

A free tool to help you start

We've just released the DFSI Participatory Budget Builder — a free resource for non-profit practitioners and program designers who want to build budgets that actually reflect their values.

It's practical, flexible, and grounded in anti-oppressive, care-centred program design principles. You can tick and untick line items, edit costs, add your own, and see your total update in real time — across multiple currencies and project durations.

It's not a perfect solution to an imperfect system. But it's a tool for making better choices, more deliberately, inside the constraints you're actually working in.

Access the free budget builder → Participatory Bugdet Builder 

Come think with us — live

Everything this newsletter has been building toward — power, participation, language, budgets, constructive complicity — we're going to think through it together, live, in a free webinar.

Designing Otherwise: Free Live Webinar 📅 Friday 8th May 2026 🕛 12pm BST

If you've ever submitted a proposal and felt something was missing — some history, some politics, some truth about how the problem was actually produced, this conversation is for you.

We'll be thinking together about what gets erased between the first draft and the funder submission, why we've learned to call that professionalism, and what it would take to design programs that don't require us to sanitise what we know.

It's free. It's live. And it's a no-commitment first step into everything the Design for Social Impact Accelerator is built around.

Reserve your spot → Free Webinar

The Accelerator — 10 spots remaining

The webinar is free. But if you're ready to go deeper — if you want eight weeks of live, relational, abolition-informed program design practice with a cohort of people doing this work across the world — the Design for Social Impact Accelerator opens June 5th 2026.

We built it because practitioners kept telling us this kind of learning environment doesn't exist in most places. A space that holds the political and the practical together. That doesn't ask you to choose between your values and your constraints. That treats you as the expert you already are — while giving you new tools, new language, and a community of practice to lean on long after the eight weeks end.

10 spots remaining. Capped at 20.

We offer parity pricing, payment plans, and bespoke pricing for teams — because the room should be accessible to the people who most need to be in it.

Secure your spot → Sign up here

Coming in the next issue: We'll be reflecting on what came up in the webinar — and going deeper into what it means to design programs that don't just redistribute resources, but redistribute power.

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