Dark Matter Labs
Sector:
Think Tank
Location:
world wide
Date:
since January 2021
Expertise:
Non-Executive Advisory
Dark Matter Labs emerged from a vision for a new way of organizing to address deep systemic change in society, capable of expanding possibilities for better futures and building real options to create and drive societal transition.
Nearly eight years in, this original vision remains. At the core of everything we do is a relentless drive to expand the public good. We’re committed to research, experimentation, action and making that’s rigorous, imaginative, and open source, by default, that is rooted in deepening understanding of complex problem spaces. We work intentionally with a wide range of partners and ecosystems on systemically addressing intersectional issues of existential importance, like climate and biodiversity, democracy and security, city transformation, food systems, social and economic inequality, long-term futures, and more.
How we’re set up
Also core to our work is how we’re set up. We’ve built and co-built a system of labs and mission arcs through work with partners around the world, including governments, civil society organizations, and our own in-house studio teams. With our practices of working and sharing learnings in the open by default, we’ve also influenced and helped transform the fields in which we operate, through various communication channels and frequent public talks and dialogues. Many communities benefit from our documentation, platforms, tools, and communications – from system change strategists and practitioners, to governments, artists, activists, and institutional funders. Academics often bring our work into their research and university courses as examples of edge work in field-leading change.
Our partners and funders
Our partners and funders include: Laudes Foundation, One Project, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the Omidyar Group, Rockefeller Foundation, Partners for a New Economy, Thirty Percy, Climate-KIC, the European Commission, Community Foundations of Canada, the McConnell Foundation, the Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre, the David Suzuki Foundation, RadicalXchange, Evergreen Canada, Arantzazulab, Civic Square, RMIT University, many city and state governments, the UN Development Programme and UN Environment Programme, and many others.
A growing ecosystem
Dark Matter Labs (Dm) consists of five legal entities with about 65 staff members based in North America, Europe, and Asia. Together with a growing number of collaborators from around the world, we’re invested in exploring, creating, and building to respond to and get ahead of increasingly rapid societal and systemic changes. We do that by creating systemic capabilities, proofs of possibility, and learning communities that generate highly beneficial outcomes and impact, and that are future-fit, widely shared, and adaptable across contexts.
We’re now systemically deepening our work to match the necessity of the context we face by building deeper structural partnerships with mission-aligned funders and investors.