2026 Action Learning Lab on
Climate & Environmental Philanthropy
A nine-month global learning journey
to experiment with new ways of resourcing community-led climate action
We invited applications to the Lab in April 2026 and we received 32 stellar applications. We meant to select 18 organisations, and finally decided to go ahead with 21 organisations (7 per region).
The Lab brought together international, domestic, and locally-led philanthropy and grassroots practitioners in the climate and environmental justice field to connect, learn together, and to foster new ways of working.
As we move along with the Lab, we are enabling deep dive experiments in key change areas that target enquiries that centre on shifting power, whilst protecting space for vulnerability, failure, risk taking, and aiming for new kinds of relationships to emerge. We hope to be able to accompany participants through these experiments.
We started with a Global Gathering that was attended by 18 Lab participants, the full PhiDi team and WINGS team members on 7th May 2026. In the Global Gathering, we:
- Connected this global community together
- Started weaving our learning container together with the lab principles, agreements and conditions
- Started familiarising ourselves with the dilemmas and tensions we are holding and embark on the journey we will be working on sharpening over the next few months.
Each Region then held a smaller regional gathering to help participants connect with each other and ground themselves in the reality of their contexts. It was also an opportunity to share with each other a little more about their specific experiments and dilemmas and notice the patterns, similarities and differences. Given how busy participants are, there were two meetings in the Asia Region to enable all the Lab participants to attend.
The participants then went into triads and quartets facilitated by the regional PhiDi teams. We are now about half way through the Lab. So far, each participant has presented their dilemma, mirrored back to their triad/quartet feedback from their experience, worked further on their dilemma along with their teams and are considering the experiments that arise from their dilemma.
Connect with us at
philanthropydialogues@gmail.com
Key Dates & Timeline
The 2026 Action Learning Lab runs from May 2026 to January 2027.
Information Webinar – Monday, 13th April 2026 at 13:00 UTC
Application deadline – Friday,17th April 2026 at 17:00 UTC
Participant selection & onboarding – Thursday, 30th April 2026
First Global Gathering (Lab Opening) – Thursday, May 7th 2026 – 13:00 to 15.00 UTC
First Regional Gathering – Tuesday, May 26th 2026 – Time TBD by each region
Triad learning sessions
June – November 2026
Six small-group sessions where participants work through real experiments and dilemmas. Dates and time to be determined by each triad.
Second Regional Gathering – Monday, 7th December 2026, Time TBD by each region
Closing Global Gathering: Final reflection and harvesting – Thursday, January 21st 2027 – 13:00 – 15.00 UTC
Beyond the cohort
The Action Learning Lab is embedded within a broader ecosystem of learning. Insights from the Lab will be shared through:
- stories and reflections
- in-depth case studies
- connections with the WINGS regional and global Movement Funding Ecosystem Community of Practice.
These communities reach over 250 philanthropic actors globally directly, and 100,000 people through their wider networks, helping Lab insights travel beyond the cohort and inform wider shifts in philanthropic practice.