We build collaborations for a brighter and fairer future for all.
Develop your leadership, thinking and practice in ways that change power and transform systems
Explore our Learning ProgramWe bring together leaders and organisations from different contexts for learning, creativity, and shared action. Collectively, we bring to life new narratives for a more equitable Australia.
We work with First Nations and other Australians to create conditions for peace, healing and equity. This work is structural and relational. It is about collective healing in a country still grappling with colonisation.
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We believe an equitable democracy is one in which dialogue and decisions take place with all of us. It includes diverse perspectives and takes place from communities to the national level.
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ChangeFest is the nationwide movement for community-led change in Australia. It is committed to truth, healing, and equity - and to First Nations voice being centred in local, regional and national decisions.
Learn moreOur focus is collaborative systems change that is led by communities. We start with people and Country – where we are invited in.
We work with you and your community on your vision for more equitable futures.
We help you weave in partners – other organisations, governments, philanthropy, and business – to align with what is most important to you.
We provide expertise to help you collaborate - in ways that transform the systems you are part of.
Today’s challenges require leadership by people who can work systemically and in complexity.
We work with you to help build collective leadership. This may be within your organisation, sector or beyond.
With our partners, we design and demonstrate new governance models and practice.
We specialise in centring principles of equity and shared decision-making. We can work with you on local, regional and/or national governance.
We work with you to embed systems learning and knowledge sharing. We provide support for strategy and narrative building.
Our approach focuses on redistributing power and accountability to people most impacted by the system(s).
We work with you to develop innovations that increase community control over resources and capital.
Our focus is how governance and practices can lead to community control of resources that is more equitable.
We partner and collaborate with you to:
We work with you to cultivate the next generation of systems change collaborations.
This could be designing, testing, and incubating new innovations and experiments.
It could be walking alongside as a learning partner as your initiative reaches the next level of maturity and depth.
We help you learn and connect through platforms, courses and events.
We support you to build your knowledge, share insights with peers, and grow your networks.
We bring diverse people together to learn, connect and grow our field.
We help amplify the work of communities that are demonstrating ways to make systems more equitable.
We work with communities, government, and funders to identify and build the infrastructure we need for the next horizon of systems change.
We work with our peers, nationally and internationally, to advance the field of collaborative systems change.
Deep Collaboration was created by First Nations and other Australians with one goal. That is to find a new way to lead change together and create a more equitable Australia.
Deep Collaboration is a leadership practice so we can work across culture and power, while centring justice and equity. It enables First Nations and other Australians to collaborate and tackle systemic barriers to equity.
This practice has been adopted by a national network of practitioners. It has been applied to the Victorian Treaty pathway and negotiations; to capability building of the Commonwealth Government for Close The Gap; to local Voice and self-determination governance practices; and to many other initiatives.
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ChangeFest25 was held on the country of the Whadjuk people in the greater Walyalup area (Fremantle) in partnership with Imagined Futures on 19-21 November 2025.
Originally launched in the east—on the country of the Yuggera and Yugambeh Speaking people, followed by Darug country—the ChangeFest Songlines have also embraced Larrakia country in the north, Lutriwita country in the south, and Latji Latji country along our great rivers.
“It is right that the ChangeFest Songlines now travel to Western Australia. ChangeFest25 in Walyalup connects the work of ChangeFest across the country, providing a continuation of celebration, learning, and connections for change,” said ChangeFest Elder Aunty Faith Green.
Photo credit: Jillian Mundy and ChangeFest
Learn more about ChangeFest
It was exciting to see the launch of Partnerships for Local Action and Community Empowerment (PLACE) in 2024. PLACE is a national organisation that supports the adoption and impact of place-based approaches across Australia.
PLACE was a long time in the making. It came from visionary and persistent leadership from communities and collaborators across Australia.
CFI was the Foundation Partner for PLACE, in consortium with the Institute for Social Science Research (ISSR) (University of Queensland) and the Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG).
Photo credit: PLACE
“When we have an agenda to change or transform systems – to make the systems we are part of more equitable – we are calling ourselves and those we work with into a different way of being and working together.
One that is community-led, systemic, learning centred, experimental. And at times, wisely disruptive.”
