Donella Meadows wrote in her book Beyond the Limits, “A sustainability revolution requires each person to act as a learning leader at some level, from family to community to nation to the world.”
Acting as a learning leader at any level is challenging because the issues that leaders address are complex and interrelated, exhibiting short- and long-term tradeoffs, and counter-intuitive dynamics. The human environments where leadership is needed are decidedly tricky. People differ in their goals, mindsets, and understandings of what is happening in their system. Building collaboration and ability to act effectively with high leverage is key to creating global sustainability.
Three qualities that Donella combined brilliantly were dedication to scientific rigor, deeply grounded optimism, and the ability to communicate well. Her system tools enabled her to see clearly the root causes of seemingly intractable problems — poverty, war, environmental degradation, unsustainable growth — and her deep affection for people and the earth gave her a unique power to reach others.
We believe the world needs more people with this combination of skills.
The Donella Meadows Leadership Fellows Program builds on Donella’s legacy. Throughout her career, Donella studied, taught, and acted on a set of thinking, communicating, visioning, and conversational skills centered on a systems approach that addressed these challenges.
Our Fellowship Program was designed to increase the impact of our Fellows by providing a combination of skills not easily found elsewhere. The core tools used in our leadership trainings are systems thinking, visioning and reflective conversation.
The Fellowship Program has trained 74 mid-career professionals from 16 countries in the context of their current jobs to help accelerate a global shift to economic, social and environmental sustainability. Fellows were matched with coaches from Sustainability Institute to negotiate an explicit learning plan that included homework and regular coaching sessions plus a small peer-coaching group that met for the tenure of the Fellowship, and often beyond.
We are grateful for the support and funding that made the Donella Meadows Leadership Fellows Program possible and effective, with particular appreciation to The Morgan Family Foundation for being the Program’s lead funder. We also want to thank the Sustainability Institute staff and the many others whose teaching and writing provided inspiration, wisdom and guidance, including Donella Meadows, Dennis Meadows, Peter Senge, Joanna Macy, John Sterman, Chris Argyris, Robert Fritz , Robert Gass, Rockwood Institute, The Vermont Leadership Initiative and the Legacy Center.
We are grateful to all our donors, including those listed below and over 250 individuals.
Foundations and Corporate Giving
- Alces Foundation
- Anichini
- Bragdon Law Office
- David and Lucile Packard Foundation
- Flora Family Foundation
- Foundation for Global Community
- James & Rebecca Morgan Family Foundation
- Lemelson Foundation
- Margo and Joe Osherenko Foundation
- Oracle Corporate Giving
- Peninsula Community Foundation
- Resero Corporation
- Resource System Group
- Seed Systems, Inc.
- Stiftung Drittes Millennium (Foundation for the Third Millennium)
- Stonyfield Farm, Inc
- The Bay and Paul Foundations
- Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program
- Vermont Community Foundation
- Weasel Fund
- Wilcox Family Fund
- Yellow Wood Associates
- Anonymous
In-Kind Donations
- Cabot Cheese
- Cedar Mountain Farm
- Cobb Hill Cohousing
- Chelsea Green Publishing
- Green Mountain Coffee Roasters
- Harpoon Brewery
- Image Photos, Clemens Kalischer
- Island Press
- Pegasus Communications
- Sumner Mansion
- Trinity Conference Center
The Sustainability Institute is a nonprofit 501(C)3. Donations are tax deductible.
