Unlocking a Systems Approach to Funding

In collaboration with ImpactCollab and ImpactSG, a team comprising The Shoal Co., Omplexity, and SeedFuture Collective co-hosted an immersive session on the topic of Unlocking a Systems Approach to Funding at the AVPN South-east Asia Summit. The gathering brought together forward-thinking investors and their bankers—not just to understand systemic investing, but to fundamentally shift the way we think, feel, and act on investment strategies.

A Transformational Journey

Participants were guided through three key phases:

• Open Minds – Understanding the relevance of systems thinking in investing.

• Open Hearts – Emotionally connecting with the realities and challenges of the systems they serve, using the example of a farmer in a food system.

• Open Will – Visualizing a transformed system in 2035, identifying their roles within it, and committing to concrete actions.

Session Highlights

Challenging Assumptions: Myth vs. Fact on Systemic Investing

We kicked off with an interactive quiz to challenge assumptions and align participants on the principles of systems change and investing. This quick exercise highlighted common misconceptions:

• Systems thinking is not about breaking complex issues into smaller parts. Instead, it focuses on understanding interconnections, feedback loops, and emergent patterns.

• Systems change is not most effective when guided solely by a centralized vision. While clarity of purpose is essential, top-down approaches often fail. Sustainable change emerges from multi-stakeholder collaboration, fostering adaptation and shared ownership.

• Financial capital is not the sole driver of systems investing. A polycapital approach acknowledges the power of relational, cultural, and intellectual capital in shifting deep structures and behaviors.

We also introduced the Bioregional Financing Facilities approach, a regenerative investment approach that aligns financial capital with the ecological, social, and economic realities of a specific bioregion. A case study on Hawaii Investment Ready illustrated how this approach aims to foster long-term, place-based impact.

Translating Insights into Action

Before closing, participants were encouraged to publicly committed to one actionable next step. Here are some commitments that emerged:

“Talk to my family about opportunities to think about wider systems in our investments.”

“Connect philanthropy organizations and private investors with common goals and initiate the dialogue to make system change together.”

During our closing circle, words like “inspired,” “buzz,” and “together” echoed through the room, giving us hopeful signals of a collective shift from intention to action.

What emerged wasn’t just new knowledge—it was a shift in how we relate to complexity. Systems change in funding means moving from isolated solutions to long-term stewardship, and from fragmented transactions to ecosystem coherence.

This kind of change requires more than new tools. It asks us to see differently, feel more fully, and act from a deeper place. What began as a workshop ended as a quiet commitment—not just to fund projects, but to cultivate the conditions for lasting systems change.

Investing for Systems Change

We then explored the shift from “ego” to “eco”—moving beyond individual needs to system needs - so that investments, philanthropy and businesses can align toward a shared systemic purpose. We face multiple ‘wicked’ problems in the world, which all require us to first see the system and its interconnections, and then going deep to see the underlying systemic structures and mental models.

The Journey of Rice: Mapping a Complex System

Using the story of a rice farmer in Thailand, participants engaged in a hands-on exercise to uncover the hidden complexities of food production. Key questions explored included:

• Who are the key players in the rice supply chain?

• What environmental and social impacts arise from production?

• Who benefits and who bears the externalities?

By surfacing these interconnections, participants gained a new perspective on how investment decisions ripple through an entire system.