Social Impact Advisory,
From Strategy to Infrastructure
Advisory for funders, foundations and non-profits working on climate, nature and ocean challenges in Southeast Asia.
Approach
From fragmented ecosystems to sound partnerships
Many of today’s challenges are shaped by fragmented ecosystems, competing priorities and the difficulty of aligning ambition, resources, and action. Effective change begins with deep contextual understanding of the realities on the ground, the perspectives of those involved and the dynamics shaping a system.
In this space, Barbara brings clarity and direction to impact organisations through investing in understanding these meaningful contexts, deconstructing internal complexities, surfacing opportunities, and developing practical approaches that turn good intentions into achievable, lasting change.
From strategy to infrastructure
Drawing on experience from building philanthropic organisations, leading teams and designing impact strategies, Barbara focuses on building strategies, as well as the infrastructure needed to move forward. This may be a philanthropic collaborative fund, a multi-stakeholder coalition, programme, or the governance and organisational design needed for an organisation to thrive.
Serving philanthropic and nonprofit organisations
Barbara works with funders entering or rethinking their work in Southeast Asia, foundations building their own infrastructure, and organisations finding their place in a crowded ecosystem. The problems are usually ones no single organisation, funder, or sector can solve alone.
Origin Story
Projects For Change began with a simple belief: everyone has unique gifts, experiences, and perspectives that can contribute to a better future.
Founded by Barbara Jackson in Sweden in 2015, the company was created as a way to put her own skills to work, using her strengths as a communicator, strategist, and facilitator to bring together people, ideas, and resources in support of social and environmental progress.
Since then, Barbara’s journey through philanthropy, collaborative funding, and social innovation has shaped a deeper understanding of how meaningful change happens, by taking the time to understand complexity, listening deeply, creating alignment across sectors and stakeholders, trusting both insight and intuition and building the relationships that turn shared ambition into collective action.
Relaunched in 2025 in Singapore, Projects For Change supports leaders, organisations, and changemakers navigating complex challenges across climate, nature, ocean, philanthropy, and social innovation. Through strategy, facilitation, and advisory support, Projects For Change helps turn possibilities into practical pathways for change.
Services
Barbara creates momentum for initiatives that seek positive change, helping organisations move from ideas and intention to coordinated action and measurable impact.
Strategic Advisory
Partners with impact organisations to clarify their purpose, sharpen strategic direction, ensure efficiency and develop approaches that respond to complex challenges and create real world impact.
Stakeholder & Landscape Mapping
Helps clients see the bigger picture — exploring the people, organisations, and forces shaping a landscape to reveal patterns, opportunities, and pathways for meaningful change.
Market Entry & Navigation
Supports organisations finding their role within Southeast Asia’s impact ecosystem by connecting global ambition with local realities, building authentic partnerships, and uncovering opportunities to contribute meaningfully to lasting change locally.
Facilitation & Moderation
Brings the right stakeholders into the room and guide conversations that align perspectives, build trust, deepen understanding, and help groups move from dialogue to shared ownership, and action.
Programme & Fund Design
Guides organisations from possibility to practice by designing and launching collaborative impact programmes and funds from early ideas through to implementation.
Leadership Coaching & Development
Guides leaders in finding their authentic voice so that their values and actions align, and their impact is amplified.
Recent Projects
Developed a Southeast Asia engagement strategy and convening design for an international research institute expanding their regional ocean conservation work.
Conducted a landscape study, stakeholder analysis and a competitive assessment for an international NGO working in Southeast Asia on Climate-Health nexus, Sustainable Blue Economy and Energy Transition.
Developed a due diligence and grantee assessment framework focused on organisational and financial health for a regional community foundation.
Assessed over a dozen NGOs on their organisational readiness for funding on behalf of a regional collaborative ocean fund.
Advised a private philanthropist on building an ocean giving portfolio, mapping the regional philanthropy landscape and identifying specific funding opportunities.
Curated and facilitated a 50-person workshop for funders, on behalf of a global institute and regional foundation, to understand what communities need in practice to pursue and sustain their environmental and socio-economic goals.
Barbara Jackson Bio
Barbara Jackson designs the architecture that enables funders, business leaders and communities to align and work together for greater impact.
She works across philanthropy, climate, nature and ocean conservation in Southeast Asia, taking a systems approach that holds ecological goals together with the communities and livelihoods they support. She has spent over a decade in the social innovation field, preceded by a private sector career in communications, strategy, leadership and facilitation.
Singapore-based since 2018 and a Permanent Resident, she founded Projects For Change in 2015 and relaunched the practice in Singapore in 2025, helping foundations, funders, and mission-driven organisations navigate complex ecosystems, develop regional strategies, and turn ambitious goals into real impact.
Barbara has repeatedly built organisations and initiatives from the ground up. As a founding team member of Asia Community Foundation, Barbara helped build the organisation from inception and contributed to the philanthropic infrastructure that enabled ACF to deploy SGD 12.6M across 77 partners in 14 markets within its first 18 months. She contributed to the design of ACF's regranting capabilities for international climate funders, and to the governance, due diligence, and MEL frameworks underpinning its philanthropic vehicles. She also played a central role in the creation of the 30x30 Southeast Asia Ocean Fund, from identifying the opportunity and convening founding partners to building its operational infrastructure and supporting the efforts that helped the fund surpass its USD 5M target.
Across all of this, the work has centred on designing how a group of funders or individuals comes together to align on the change that is needed, and building structures that outlast those who created them. Earlier, Barbara was a founding team member of Zennström Philanthropies' Race For The Baltic Foundation, building partnerships with family offices and private sector stakeholders to change the trajectory of the Baltic Sea’s health. She also advised the Stockholm Resilience Centre on curating ocean, climate, and AI dialogues with partners including Fondation Prince Albert II de Monaco, Princeton University, and the Swedish Government.
Trained as a facilitator by Capgemini, where she led the Accelerated Solutions Environment practice across Southeast Asia, Barbara brings structured approaches to complex problem-solving and strategic alignment discussions. She also works with clients as a leadership development coach, guiding them towards clarity and organisational alignment.