In simple terms, we help people and organisations imagine, engage with, and shape their future.
In practical terms, we define futures impact as the change that occurs when people and organisations gain clearer insight into possible futures, enabling them to make informed choices today and actively shape the systems they are part of.
When CIFS equips key actors with futures literacy, practical methods, and shared spaces for imagination and strategy, individuals gain agency, organisations embed foresight in decisions, and coalitions influence narratives, policy, and institutional direction — contributing over time to more resilient, and future-ready societal systems.
CIFS’ tiered theory of change is built across three interconnected levels, each reinforcing different uses of the future to inform the present:
Change in people:
Future-oriented mindsets and skills that support long-term perspectives, new understandings of agency, imagination of alternatives, and more intentional action in the present.
Change in communities and organisations:
Embedding foresight in everyday practices fosters a shared language and sensemaking, leading to clearer strategic choices and stronger capabilities in areas such as innovation, risk, strategy and change management.
Contributions in systems
A sustained presence and capability that influence systems through new collective agendas, narratives, governance, imagination infrastructures, and culture to strengthen societal agency and enabling more legitimate responses to long-term, complex challenges.
