Professional Connectors Circle

Last week we had the pleasure of convening the second gathering of a new group of philanthropy advisors and other trusted advisors who are learning alongside us at Regenerative Futures Fund. This new group is called the Professional Connectors Circle.

Much of our work in the ecosystem which sits around our residents panel, our funders and our funded cohort has a learning theme. The Professional Connectors Circle has been established with a similar focus.

At our second lunch last week we covered a range of topics such as our Residents Panel, their role in decision making, how they were brought into this and trained and what comes next for them and touching on participatory decision making more generally, and the governance that sits around this. We discussed our progress towards the pooled fund target, how we are working with individual philanthropists as well as trusts and foundations in Scotland and across the UK. And of course we did a deep dive into our cohort of organisations who will be funded for the next ten years, and some of the emerging themes.

How did this come about? As with all the best ideas this evolved from a spark of an idea, and on this occasion, a trip to the pub! Julie Hutchison, a lawyer and philanthropy advisor had the idea spark and a trip to the pub post-Beacon Conference in London in February, with Caroline McLaughlin, social impact and philanthropy advisor and expert - and the idea was born. We then refined the idea with Margaret Morton, lawyer and philanthropy advisor who has been working with us at Regenerative Futures Fund over the past year.

The response to the invitation to a small group of advisors and follow up from our first gathering back in May was very positive and the group members were all keen to continue meeting.

A small reflection - I have had many work highlights and huge collaborative celebratory moments of 2026 so far, but developing this with Julie, Caroline and Margaret is up there for me. It’s been fascinating for me to learn more about a sector that is quite unfamiliar to me in many ways but at its heart actually very similar to the work I have done with communities and funders for years, building trust and relationships over the long-term. And very much echoes the long-term relationship building work Aala, Andy and Joe do with our cohort and residents panel. The long-term relationship and trust building that is the golden thread that runs through all that we do, and there is no short-cut to this. It takes time.

Thanks to Chris Weir from Hampden Bank for hosting our second gathering in their beautiful surroundings. We are now planning ahead for our next gathering in January 2027. We are looking forward to our next lunch and more learning in early 2027 and beyond, with colleagues and our wider group members. And - in time - to connecting up the Professional Connectors Circle with our cohort and others across our ecosystem - connecting Islands of Coherence.

More on this in 2027!

Here are some of the newly formed Professional Connectors Circle, prior to our delicious lunch, in the beautiful surroundings of Hampden Bank.