Robert H. N. Ho Foundation: Advancing Inner Work for Social Change
The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Global program on Contemplation, Insight, and Impact (C2i) was established in 2018 to introduce and sustain contemplative practices within frontline nonprofit organizations working to promote social and environmental change.
The long-term goal of C2i is to contribute to positive social and environmental impact by strengthening the links between inner wellbeing, nonprofit effectiveness, and social change.
In 2024, The Foundation developed four grantee case stories from their C2i Program, which seeks to explore and test the hypothesis that contemplative and wellbeing practices can be applied within frontline nongovernmental organizations to contribute to their external, mission-related objectives.
Each case story demonstrates how inner skill-building — such as greater self-awareness, compassion, connection, and resilience — can have inner and outer benefits for the social and environmental sectors. The case stories demonstrate what that can look like in practice, and what can be achieved when funders intentionally support nonprofit inner capacity building.
One of the Foundation’s grantees, The Conscious Food Systems Alliance (CoFSA) is a movement of food, agriculture, and deep consciousness practitioners supporting people from across food and agriculture systems to cultivate the inner capacities that activate systemic change and regeneration. CoFSA is convened by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), which strengthens agricultural efforts globally with a current portfolio of projects representing over USD 1.2 billion in grants.
CoFSA participated in the C2i program with immersive inner development experiences, group community building, and small demonstration grants. Their case story showed increased traction behind the idea that inner capacity strengthening can shift mindsets to foster connection and inspire new ways of thinking, being, and acting. Food systems practitioners and donors began to cultivate capacities such as self-awareness, empathy, and nature connectedness, and showed signs of transforming mindsets – opening doors to new efforts to shift food systems in ways that support regeneration.
You can read the full learning review for the CoFSA program here.