Futures School: Leadership Journey
The Futures School Leadership Journey is a curated space for senior philanthropic leaders.
Futures thinking is not a tool – it is a way of leading. Futures School is where leaders step into what’s next.
Why a Futures School?
Leading today can feel heavy. The pressure of the present leaves little space for leaders to think, reflect, or focus on what could emerge next, while others look to them for certainty.
Futures School – a leadership journey for a curated group of senior philanthropic leaders – creates the space for reflection, learning and rethinking roles, strategies and impact.
Over nine months, leaders will engage in deep, experience-based convenings with peers who are holding similar complex questions. Together, they will explore how to lead through uncertainty, rethink strategy and expand what is possible for their organisation and the field.
Philea convenes the space.
The work – and the value – comes from the people in the room.
Who is this for
Strategic leaders who are shaping strategy and direction, and who are ready to engage in honest, high-level exchange – CEOs, senior management, board members, founders and next-generation philanthropists.
This is a high-trust environment for leaders to step out of the pressure of the present. In this space, they will:
- Engage with a group of senior leaders whose thinking will challenge and expand their own
- Learn foresight fundamentals applied to philanthropic contexts and explore alternative futures to inform their vision
- Explore how anticipation and imagination can inform real strategic choices
- Bring leadership dilemmas into the room – and leave with sharper judgement, not predefined answers
- Experience a depth of conversation and trust that is rarely possible in day-to-day leadership contexts
- Reframe uncertainty – not as something to resolve, but as something to work with.
Why it’s worth it
The value of Futures School is not only in the content and methodologies.
It is in the quality of the room, the conversations and the trust built over time.
Through this learning journey, leaders will get:
- Space to step back from immediate pressures and think at a strategic level and reimagine what’s possible
- Space to surface questions and explore alternative futures using anticipation and imagination
- Space to engage with peers who are navigating similarly complex decisions and who are pioneering innovative approaches in philanthropy
- Space to test assumptions, challenge their thinking and refine their judgement
Most leaders don’t lack ideas – they lack the time and space to think with the right people.
Where leaders will come together
What the curriculum includes:
Embracing foresight and futures thinking
- Understanding foresight fundamentals such as Futures Cone, Megatrends and Drivers of Change, Horizon Scanning, Wild Cards, Weak Signals
- Mapping present and futures by revealing assumptions and questions through methodologies such as Polak Game, Question Burst and Futures Triangle
Enabling alternative futures and imagination
- Exploring alternative futures through methodologies such as Futures Bazaar, Three Horizons and embodied foresight
- Building and transforming futures through Vision Building and Backcasting
Enhancing risk awareness and preparedness
- Enhancing risk awareness and preparedness by exploring a broad spectrum of risks. Mapping interconnected, cascading impacts using tools such as Risk Butterfly, Risk-Taking in Philanthropy, Futures Wheel
- Identifying philanthropy and civil society interventions to mitigate risks and enable pathways to transformation
Increasing leadership and governance capabilities
- Embracing systems practice mindset by incorporating ecosystemic view and understanding a variety of roles needs to enable transformative change
- Exploring what leading and governing future-minded philanthropic organisations entails, holding direction over time and protecting long-term intent from short-term pressures, based on Philea’s
- Exploring 21st century philanthropy and Futures of Governance explorations
More details
Duration: Nine months, participants become part of the Futures Philanthropy community, with ongoing access to a global network of peers shaping the future of philanthropy.
Format: A leadership journey, anchored in two immersive, experience-based convenings complemented by peer-led exchanges and curated sessions.
Dates and Locations:
- 5-8 October 2026, Tilal Utique, Tunisia (arrival 4 October, optional dinner),
- 6-8 April 2027, SOON Futures Lab, Copenhagen, Denmark (arrival on 5 April, optional dinner)
- Invitation to Futures Philanthropy Dialogue Walks ahead of the Philea Forum 2027 – a space for all cohorts to meet and exchange informally.
Participation Fee
The participation fee covers the full leadership journey including the invitation to the Futures Philanthropy community and future invitations to events and convenings.
- € 6,161.5 – Philea philanthropy infrastructure members (inclusive of VAT and accommodation in Tilal Utique)
- €8,460 – Philea foundation members and partners (inclusive of VAT and accommodation in Tilal Utique)
- €11,000 – Non-members (by invitation only) (inclusive of VAT and accommodation in Tilal Utique)
A limited number of partial and full scholarships are available to ensure geographic, leadership and thought diversity in the cohort.
All participants are responsible for covering their own travel and accommodation in Copenhagen. Accommodation in Tilal Utique is arranged by Philea
Selection process: Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis, with a deadline on 8 June, 2026. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to a 30-minute conversation to explore their leadership context, current challenges and aspirations.
Participation is limited to 25 – 30 leaders to ensure depth, trust, and quality of exchange.
Time commitment: 7 days to attend the in-person gatherings, 5 h preparation time for the gatherings, attending monthly 1 – 1.5 h online exchanges, which are optional.
Who is behind the Futures School
The Futures School is enabled and co-created with our partners Famtastisch Stiftung, Fondation Hans Wilsdorf, Kamel Lazaar Foundation, Stiftung Mercator Schweiz, SOON Futures Lab and Bikubenfonden, Futures Philanthropy community, the alumni of the Futures School and our thought partner Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies.
Contacts
