Creating the Future’s Integrity Body (Board) Meeting:
Monday, June 15, 2026
10am-12pm Pacific time / 1pm-3pm Eastern time / 6pm-8pm UK time
Topic:
Using Catalytic Thinking to Set Salaries
Watch the meeting LIVE at this post. Just scroll to the very bottom of the page.
Details about how to participate are below.
Using Catalytic Thinking to Set Salaries
For most of Creating the Future’s existence, we have tried to operate as movement-like as possible. We determined that instead of building a huge organization, we would create a network of networks to accomplish our mission – that the only way we could succeed in supporting the larger social justice movement was to distribute the execution of our work broadly.
What that has meant in practice has been that projects are happening that are NOT under our name, but are guided by our the questions of Catalytic Thinking. We have always said that we would see the success of our mission when people we’ve never heard of are asking Catalytic Thinking questions of other people we’ve never heard of. That approach has allowed us to be adaptable and responsive to opportunities, and to more broadly distribute the work of our mission than if we were holding tight to the reins.
To further ensure that the work was about accomplishing the mission rather than providing ongoing support of a program, we set a 10-year time frame for our efforts. All of this was to align with and further our vision of more effective social justice efforts creating a more humane world.
How has that work been supported?
In support of that movement-like work, we have been fortunate to be entirely supported by the people in our community who are affected by our mission. People who love our work and want it to continue. People who have engaged with our education programs. We’ve always been proud to be funded as movements are funded – by the people inside that movement.
To that end, our teams, including our faculty, have contributed their time and talents, for the most part donating those gifts entirely. Where there were funds to compensate folks for their time, it was shared among our team members. And to date, Hildy and Dimitri have relied on outside funding sources for their primary income.
This approach has allowed us to be agile, and to bring more and more people into this movement, rather than constantly feeling like we have to support the financial burden of a large organization. And it allowed us to escape the values-based disconnect of working to dismantle structures of power and privilege while having to seek grace (i.e. ask for money) from the very institutions we were seeking to change.
In addition to walking the talk of our values, we also realized early on that there was a huge opportunity cost for fundraising. As a young organization with a 10-year mission (and especially during our start-up years), we could either spend our precious time raising money, or spend that time accomplishing all that we have accomplished in our short existence.
- We have taught over 1,000 people in our classes.
- We have reached tens of thousands of people around the globe with the education in our weekly newsletters.
- And we have completed over 30 demonstration projects, showing the power of Catalytic Thinking to create more inclusive, visionary change.
Having only 10 years to accomplish something huge, we chose to get the work done rather than taking even one of those years to focus on fundraising.
All of this has been by design.
Creating the Future’s Final Years
Now it is time for a different design.
As we step into the last couple of years of Creating the Future’s tenure, the work ahead of us will be massive. Documenting the results of our demonstration projects. Creating the library of resources that will outlive our work. Generating a massive community engagement effort to get those resources into the hands of folks who can share Catalytic Thinking in their own realms.
That work will require more than full-time attention of Hildy and Dimitri, and likely other staff / contractors as well.
Unlike the short-term demonstration projects we have been involved in up until now, this work will be one long, intensive project that will require our team’s full-time attention for over a year – including salaries commensureate with that workload. For the first time in Creating the Future’s history, we will therefore be seeking funding to accomplish the final leg of our mission.
Having spent time a year ago discussing hiring practices, to prepare for this moment, what we have not discussed so far is the issue of salaries. That will be the topic of our June meeting.
- Who might be affected by what Creating the Future does re: setting salaries? Beyond the staff, which other groups / individuals / entities might be affected by what we decide?
- What would good look like for all those people and entities that will be affected?
- What would need to be in place to create that good result?
- What actions will we take to put those conditions in place? (i.e. the salaries we set)
By this discussion, we will not just be setting the salary of our CEO (which, yes, we will be doing). We will be establishing a framework for setting ALL our salaries – a framework that will align with our values, walking the talk of the world we want to see.
While our bylaws could justify our holding this meeting in one of our rare executive sessions (as is typical for salary discussions), we are instead holding this as an open meeting for you to join in. We are doing this for several reasons:
- By having these sorts of conversations openly, we will be talking not just about the actual salary (the $$), but more importantly, the rationale for that salary. The more important conversation is not the actual number, but the WHY of that number. What decision-making criteria shall we base those salaries on?
- Having this discussion openly makes clear that these issues can be discussed openly! For the highest paid individuals in any organization, our federal filings have us list salaries anyway, so it’s not as if they are top secret. It just feels important to be open about the process we will use to determine that number.
- Lastly, it is our mission to demonstrate what it looks like to apply Catalytic Thinking to the everyday issues change leaders face. And that includes setting salaries.
The work we are stepping into in these final years of our mission is beyond exciting. Having a solid financial base from which to accomplish that work will allow us to close out this project in a way that truly honors the work that has been done.
All of that is what our Integrity Team will begin discussing at our June meeting. And as always, the conversation will be a whole lot richer if you are at the table with us!
How to Prepare
First, let us know if you plan to attend by sending a note at this link.
Second, please look through the links throughout this post, to familiarize yourself with the topic at hand. Our planning to get to this point has been extensive and community-driven, so those links will help you be up to speed for this important conversation.
Third, if you are not familiar with Catalytic Thinking or the Integrity functions of our board, the following will be helpful:
The Catalytic Thinking Framework is described at this link, with links to videos and other documents that can help you understand the framework. You can also check out the questions that guide Catalytic Thinking at this link. We recommend having those questions available during the meeting, to spark your thinking during the discussion.
To get a sense of the context of our Integrity Board, this post introduces our thinking about that.
3 Ways to participate
If you have never been part of Creating the Future’s work, all our strategy and board meetings are open and participatory, for anyone who wants to be part of the discussion. You can see more about that at this link.
Where we meet:
The board meeting will take place online via Zoom. You can watch it right here at this post. If the video does not appear precisely on time, please be patient – we are probably just running a few minutes late.
There are 3 ways you can participate in our meetings.
- If you are already familiar with and committed to Creating the Future’s work, and you would like to be actively involved in the meeting discussion side-by-side at our online “meeting table,” let us know, and we will send you an invitation to join us online. Read more here about what it means to participate in that way. (Please note that these seats are limited, to ensure everyone’s voice can be heard. If you are not able to be in the room with us, no worries – there are still two other ways to share your insights with us!)
- If you want to participate but are unable to be in the meeting itself (perhaps you’re at work, or maybe at home with kids running around, etc.), watch the live-stream in real time and share your questions and ideas to us in the chat stream in YouTube. We read those comments aloud during the meeting, just as if you were there. This is a great first step for those who are not as familiar with our work, but want to get more involved.
To participate in this way, come to this page at the time of the meeting. You will see the meeting streaming at the bottom of the page here. At the bottom of that video, you will see the words “Watch on YouTube.” Click through, and you can follow directly on YouTube and comment there.
(Please note: We will only see your comments if you type them at the Youtube page of the live stream. In addition, during the meeting, we will not look at blog comments here at this post. While we will check those comments later, during the meeting we will only be following the comments at Youtube.)
- Lastly, if you want to simply watch, or you want to think about what you’re hearing and respond later – or if you will be watching the recording after the meeting happens – please add your thoughts into the comments here at this post. We will include that thinking into the mix of things once the meeting is over.
We look forward to your being part of the discussion!
* All Creating the Future’s board meetings are open for anyone to participate, or to watch afterwards. To learn more about the thinking behind this openness – and our experiences with being open – click here.
Logistics: The meeting will happen right here at this post. Details are below.
Watch the meeting HERE on Monday, June 15th
Note: if the meeting does not start on time please be patient as we may be running a few minutes late.