Fito, The Journey So Far…
Since it opened its doors in October 2022, the Fito Network has embarked on a colorful journey to advocate for the power of networks and help shift mindsets on what can be achieved when knowledge, relationships, resources, and voices are pooled together.
From the start the Fito Network has maintained an all-hands-on-deck approach to its systems and processes. The creation of our name and charter is a testament to this collaborative energy: over 60 minds from around the world came together across several months to articulate our values, membership strategy, and envisioned impact. We then embarked on a human-centered welcoming process that saw us bring aboard numerous networks wanting to create societal impact in various sectors and geographies across the world. For these network leaders we developed a suite of creative activities to expand theoretical and practical knowledge, build connections, and have fun – and subsequently engaged hundreds of participants in them. We launched the Fito Facilitators pool, with 8 seasoned network facilitators from 6 countries, as well as the extensive online collaborative impact methods kit of 500+ techniques and tools. And the highlight of our journey so far has been the Networks Festival, a 6-week extravaganza from May to June 2023 that brought together 100+ speakers across 25+ events, engaging 700+ people online and offline from over 50 countries.
Acutely aware that many networks remain underfunded, we also prioritized activities that target funders, an important part of our ecosystem. We thus invited 12 funders to a series of discussions around how to best engage with and add value to networks – while also compiling an open-source funders list to help network leaders identify potential funding avenues.
The Fito Networks’s initial achievements were enabled by flexible funding from two start-up grants. The trust given to us by these generous individuals have allowed us to engage in highly participatory processes in our design responding directly to constituents’ needs and desires. We believe this is the core of what “equity” means – being responsive to the field rather than to the funder. On the horizon we have many opportunities for growth of our network and what we offer – we plan to expand our existing engagement pathways, upgrade our collaboration platforms, and deepen our advocacy efforts.