Faith & Philanthropy, an exploratory joint grantmaking initiative that aims to shape “a philanthropic landscape that embraces the transformative potential of spirituality and faith to address the pressing challenges of our time,” recently released a Spiritual Imagination report featuring twelve grantees rooted in various spiritual traditions that are leveraging faith and spirituality for social impact.

Meet Francesca Reznik, Program Manager at the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and committed climate activist based in Boston. Influenced by both her Jewish values and her own non-theistic spiritual practice, Francesca recently completed her Master of Theological Studies at Harvard Divinity School and is focused on creating climate transition solutions that benefit everyone. Fun facts: Francesca is half Mexican and fluent in Spanish and co-founded an ecotheology fellowship while at Harvard Divinity. She is also an innoFaith Contributing Editor.

Meet Gopal Patel, committed environmental advocate who is elevating the relevance and power of faith to help address the world’s challenges through his new initiative FutureFaith. Gopal previously founded the Hindu environmental organization, Bhumi Global, and has been mobilizing faith communities in support of climate and environmental goals for over fifteen years. Based in the New York metropolitan area (specifically, New Jersey), Gopal formerly served as co-chair of the United Nations Multi-faith Advisory Council and has served as advisor to numerous organizations as he works to bring faith voices to policy tables around the world.

In January, the World Economic Forum released a report, Faith in Action: Religion and Spirituality in the Polycrisis, arguing for the relevance of religion and spirituality in a time of complex, intersecting, global social challenges. It features several examples of collaboration between business and faith-based organizations to address some of these challenges, as well as important insights and lessons for faith, business, and other leaders. It is an invitation to forge more multi-sector collaborations that leverage the wisdom and assets of faith to drive impact at scale.

Meet Sadaf Taimur, mother, PhD student, Dalai Lama Fellow, and passionate advocate, educator, and innovator. Sadaf previously developed a project to address gender discrimination in education in her native Pakistan. Now, she is engaged in action-oriented research on transformative sustainability education, which recently won her a Green Talents Award from Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

Meet Mark Basnage, educator, innovator, and founder of MakeKnowledge. Mark is perpetually pushing the boundaries of what education can and should be. He inspires us to imagine education that is more inclusive and relevant, and where learning means being engaged in positive change.

Many faith traditions have long been rooted in a relationship with the Earth—particularly indigenous traditions, but also others, such as Jainism. And some early advocates of the environment and animal welfare were inspired by faith—such as Francis of Assisi and Buddhist emperor Ashoka. Yet the concept of ecotheology has developed largely within the last half century or so as the world has had to come to terms with the ecological destruction wrought by human society. Ecotheology looks at the relationship between religion and nature and seeks to find solutions to the current environmental crisis.

LinkedIn recently published 50 Big Ideas for 2019: What to watch in the year ahead. The list is full of interesting predictions regarding the economy, workforce, tech, leadership, and a couple on social movements. Underlying many of the predictions are issues of values, ethics, and inclusion. As society seeks better solutions to the challenges that confront us - climate change, the potential effects of artificial intelligence, inequality, political polarization, shifting workforce trends, and more - what role will faith communities and institutions play? And what would these predictions look like if offered by faith leaders rather than business leaders? We’re going to find out in the coming weeks by seeking the input of our network. We’ll report back on what we hear, but in the meantime, here are a few recent faith trends that we expect will continue to grow in 2019.

One of our favorite stories is that of teenager Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, who, inspired by his Aztec heritage, became an environmental leader at age 6. Through Earth Guardians, Xiuhtezcatl has been empowering other young people to become leaders in the proactive defense of our planet. He not only inspires us that we can change the course of climate change but reminds us that supporting young people means rooting them in community and faith but also giving them the space and encouragement to lead us with their ideas and passion.

Understanding available assets is the first step to opening up new opportunities for innovation. Technology continually makes mapping of such assets easier at scale, putting critical data at our fingertips. And speaking of scale, the Catholic Church is one of the largest private landowners in the world. Recognizing the latent potential in this massive resource, Molly Burhans is leveraging new technology to map the land assets of the Catholic Church and create new ways to channel them for social good. Read more about her bold work in this article from The Boston Globe.