Building the Positive Future

Note: in 2018 much of the work described below was separated out as Trellis for Tomorrow [trellis4tomorrow.org/en/story]; the remaining Triskeles Foundation was dissolved at the end of 2020, ten years after this interview.

A conversation with Clemens Pietzner on Triskeles

In 2002, Clemens Pietzner and a group of colleagues and board members created the Triskeles Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to youth, philanthropic services and community building. From 1984 to 2002, Clemens was executive director of the Camphill Foundation, a public foundation focused on serving communities caring for and supporting children, youth, and adults with developmental disabilities.

Working out of World Themes

» Evolving News — How did the Triskeles thought and approach develop?

Clemens Pietzner — Part of this was biographical, and some of it has to do with how I’ve had the privilege of being inserted into the world. Prior to Triskeles, I had 20 years of active engagement in various ways with Camphill. And prior to that, government work in three different state governments. I have always had an interest in social action, social justice.

Some key themes have been part of the formation of Triskeles. Those are not personal themes; they belong to all of us; they are world themes.

The first theme is: how do we build a positive future? That has always been a big question for all of us, with the emphasis on “positive.”

A second theme relates to the question of community and individual. How can I be my best independent self, standing free and fully conscious, and how can I—at the same time—be most connected and most engaged in my community—be that with my family, or my social organism? Connectedness and engagement are central to the second theme.

The third theme is: stewardship and ownership What can I truly own in this world? And what is it my practical and moral obligation to be a steward of? I don’t mean that only in terms of natural resources. But what kinds of forces do I need to steward, what kinds of relationships, and even how do I steward my own world and the social contract that I make with others?

And finally, the fourth theme is that of: money and intention Money is neutral, and it’s given value and movement through a series of our actions and oftentimes, arbitrary agreements that we generate collectively. A whole universe of activity emerges from that! In fact, money gains a certain kind of value, by what it does. And it “does stuff” because we ask it to. So we give it intention when we buy something or when we give a gift. It bears something of our consciousness, and it gains movement through that. I’ve always been really interested in what money bears, what is inherent in the transactions of money and the forces connected to money.

These four themes were central to the formation of Triskeles. We chose to build our programs with those four themes in mind, because they are all intertwined. By working with young people, we are directly addressing a positive future. And, we chose to work with money and intentionality around the issues of investment and gifts. That was true also of the themes of ownership and stewardship in community.

So, these ideas continue to be very much at the core of what Triskeles currently does even as our programs continue to evolve, emerge, and grow.

Thought into Actions and Back into Thought

» EN — You’ve done some shaping of the organization, separating out the original foundation/philanthropic work, and you’ve certainly had a lot of success in the youth work. Where would you say it is going?

CP — All I can really speak to with accuracy is maybe the next three to five years. First of all, we are generating a lot of energy and excitement and programmatic effectiveness around youth employment, health, nutrition, all the issues around obesity, leadership training, social entrepreneurship, and philanthropy. Our “Food for Thought” program is becoming in some respects our flagship program, and it touches on all of those areas. So, we’ll continue to focus on and build that program.

Secondly, because we work with young people, we are finding a great deal of interest in the area of social entrepreneurship. Young people want to know about business, about money, about green projects and operations, sustainable organizations, and globalism in the best sense of the word. How do young people take those large ideas and apply them in their practical lives? We will continue to focus on the areas of social entrepreneurship for young people and youth philanthropy. I also think this is a huge area of opportunity for the Waldorf schools. Youth today are really interested in those topics and get inspired when they see people who “walk the talk” and are doing things that are connected to their ideals.

The third direction we are working towards has to do with alignment. More and more people understand the positive aspects of sustainable and socially responsible investing and are seeing more deeply that it’s productive to think about investing aligned with one’s values and aligned with one’s charitable intent. There have been significant leaders in this field who have demonstrated that there is, can, and should be effective alignment between those things. That’s where returns, not just financial returns, but returns of impact and social importance, defined in a variety of ways, continue to be more and more important. This is what we strive for in our donor advised funding and related work in philanthropy. To be part of and helping initiate conversations on different levels around this issue of alignment, whether that be with financial planners or people who come at this from a very spiritual perspective and want to see how that streams into practical life, will be a factor in our growth.

We want to continue and expand the approaches that we have to our donor advised fund work and our philanthropic work. We definitely see our “Food for Thought” and our related programs growing. And we’re looking to further develop our green Sustainable Directions Internship Program in New York City. We will be adding board members and increasing infrastructure. We’re interested in youth entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, and philanthropy also with youth.

These are directions for further expansion. Of course, a particular challenge is finding resources. Can we find the resources to meet the demands and interests in our activity areas?

Engaging the Work of Triskeles

» EN — Then how can people step forward and help, work with you, and also benefit from your experience?

CP — We are very interested in working with people who, through philanthropy, wish to take advantage of our donor advised fund services. We are always looking for new, positive relationships that might manifest as board membership or advisors, or as volunteers on the local level. We are looking for program support. Without question, all this will help us grow. Unfortunately, we are not always able to meet a very, very significant demand for our youth programs because we just don’t have the bandwidth at times to do that. And then if people wish to benefit from our experience, we also do advisory work for and with small projects and not-for-profits. We are not a grant-making organization in the traditional sense. It’s important that people understand that. We do have resources, but the funds that we have in the Triskeles Foundation are stewarded by us; we don’t have discretionary gift money. The gifts we make are supportive of our donors’ intents. As a result, we have to disappoint people a lot, but that’s just how it works. Finally, we can serve smaller not-for-profits who are interested in a sustainable investment approach by working with their endowments or reserve funds. Sometimes endowments or reserve funds in organizations aren’t big enough to get the attention of money managers. We’re able to do that on their behalf. We can manage these funds in a socially-responsible, mission-related way, and the resources do not have to be huge. Those are a variety of ways that people could get engaged—and if you gave me another ten minutes I could think of a hundred more!

A Working-with-the-Whole Process

» EN — It seems an unusual combination, altogether, from understanding philanthropy through actual money management to all the human relationships. And these very specific needs of young people and their families, both the under-served and then young people looking to experience entrepreneurship. Is Triskeles fairly unique in this combination?

CP — I don’t know of any youth organization that actually provides programs that could potentially support a youngster from kindergarten through 12th grade. More specifically, I don’t know of other organizations that are focusing on the youth work around food and youth entrepreneurship and then also taking it all the way into philanthropy; not only for youth but beyond that. I don’t know of another organization that unifies all these pieces. In our “Food for Thought” program, for example, we’re making products like pesto or salsa with the youth. And we’re creating small business plans with them. Many of these youngsters are underserved kids, but Waldorf youth are important participants in these activities as well. We are creating small business plans around the food products that they have actually made. Then, we’re taking the products and youngsters to local farmers’ markets and shops in their neighborhoods where they are selling their products. From the money that we make with the youth, we put the money into a small youth donor advised fund. And then we guide the youth through a philanthropy process in which the young people are actually thinking, “What are the entities in our community that we use?” “How can we support them?”

We lead the youngsters through a process in which they make choices about what local charities they want to support with the money that they’ve earned. Some of our board members have matched the youths’ gifts and sales. That is a long process. Again, I don’t know of any other group that is taking the process that far. There are many great youth groups around food, and there are great youth employment groups, but we seek to combine all of these pieces.

» EN — It’s real social-artistic work. I’d ask more but you’ve given a lot of time this morning.

CP —Triskeles has come a long way in these seven years, and it has been a great journey, hard sometimes, but joyful and very rewarding.

Photos by Emilie McI. Barber.