Spark
positive
change
I believe the future can be better than the past. By connecting People and nurturing imagination we can create innovative and effective systems for positive change
I am a Cultivator of Lasting Impact. This means I actively nurture genuine connections and spot opportunities for change in current challenges. For 25 years, I’ve brought people together to spark initiatives that lead to real, tangible change. I believe in moving beyond temporary fixes by using creativity and collaboration to shape a future that truly matters.
Featured projects
Timeline
From Texas to London, and across the US and UK, my work has centered on creating projects and movements that respond to pressing social challenges. Beginning with Soul Café in 1998, I have sought to design communities and experiments where young adults, artists, entrepreneurs, and leaders could explore meaning, purpose, and belonging while addressing real needs around them.
Over the years, this has meant everything from launching campaigns on human trafficking, to reimagining how we measure social impact, to experimenting with new forms of enterprise, community, and collaboration. Each initiative has been an outworking of the deeper questions I was asking at the time: What is the future economic of rural land? How do we increase generosity for the common good? What is the role of art in a post-Christian, secular, pluralist society? And how do we equip communities and innovators to rise to the opportunities of our moment?
Patrons of the Future – 2025
Unveiling a movement reimagining generosity for the next era. Catalytic and creative, it mobilizes resources and opportunities so social innovators, artists, and changemakers can shape the future we long for.
Notes on the Land – 2023
An exploration of rural land use and economics in a post-Brexit, post-Covid context marked by climate change, food insecurity, and shifting ownership. Focused on regenerative models and collaboration to imagine new futures for land, people, and planet.
RootedGood – 2020
Co-founded RootedGood, which supports catalytic and innovative faith-based leaders working at the intersection of property development, money and mission alignment, and social enterprise.
Matryoshka Haus (2004–2019)
After 15 years, and more than a dozen community impact ventures launched along the way, Matryoshka Haus as a container was intentionally deconstructed, its work released into three new entities: RootedGood, Goodmakers Society, and The Curiosity Society. The hardest work of all: letting go, so something new could take root.
St. Dustan’s – 2015 – 2019
Created a coworking community in East London blending enterprise, hospitality, and creativity.
Château Duffy – 2012 – 2018
Designed to explore the collaborative economy in a low-tech way, I developed a plan to repurpose a 400-year-old barn and farmhouse in France. Beyond construction, it built friendships, sparked creativity, and embodied community through shared work, meals, and adventure.
It’s owned by Chris Duffy (of Duffy London fame).
Align with purpose
I can work with you to identify what matters most, build the relationships needed to respond, and create spaces where new ideas and initiatives can take shape.
Together, we can explore what’s emerging, imagine what’s possible, and develop projects that respond directly to the needs and opportunities that are uncovered.
Insights & Events
Notes on the Land
Strategic Insightopen/closeIn a post-Brexit, post-Covid Britain—marked by rising food prices, climate instability, housing pressure, and economic uncertainty—this work begins with a question: does the land hold a different kind of possibility?
Notes on the Land is an exploration into the future of rural life, grounded not in theory, but in place. Rather than analyzing from a distance, this project walked the land—moving across farms, fields, and rural communities throughout the UK to understand what is actually happening on the ground.
What emerged was a picture of both strain and quiet innovation: land held but underused, communities in transition, and a growing number of experiments in stewardship, enterprise, and shared life. Beneath it all was a deeper realization—that rural land is not simply a backdrop to these challenges, but a potential catalyst for rethinking how we live, relate, and organize our lives together.
This document gathers those observations, stories, and patterns. It is not a final answer, but an invitation—to see land differently, to notice what is already emerging, and to consider how rural contexts might help us rethink community, belonging, and the future we are building together.
Download PDFPrelude Kits
Creative Resourcesopen/closeToo often, gatherings start from zero—strangers meeting, ideas unformed. So much attention is given to what happens in the room, or the outcomes we hope to achieve, but far less to how people arrive.
Prelude Kits are designed around a simple belief: gathering well begins long before people enter the room. The experience starts at the moment of invitation—and what happens between invitation and arrival matters.
They are interactive, physical tools created to engage participants in advance—inviting reflection, conversation, and shared practice before a gathering even begins. Each kit is designed for a specific context, offering prompts, exercises, and materials that participants can use within their own environments. They create a sense of anticipation, deepen engagement, and allow people to arrive already connected—to the theme, to the work, and to one another.
More than preparation, they are part of the gathering itself. They create a thread to pull—connecting what happens before, during, and beyond the gathering.
Prelude Kits are an exploration in designing for depth—recognizing that the quality of what happens in a room is shaped by what happens before it.
Download PDFFieldnotes for the Future
Insightopen/closeFieldnotes for the Future is an ongoing, analogue practice of paying attention and sharing learning.
In a world that moves quickly and documents everything digitally, this project slows things down—capturing observations, conversations, sketches, and patterns by hand. It is a way of noticing what is emerging before it has language, and of holding ideas in a more tactile, reflective form.
Part journal, part research, part creative practice, Fieldnotes gathers fragments from across projects, places, and encounters. It traces the connections between them—surfacing themes around community, economy, land, creativity, and the future we are collectively shaping.
This is not a polished report or a fixed set of conclusions. It is less a finished document and more a living letter—an open conversation tracing what is being seen, tested, and learned in real time. Its value lies in the act of noticing, in the discipline of reflection, and in the patterns that begin to appear.
Fieldnotes for the Future offers a glimpse into the thinking behind the work: the questions being asked, the ideas taking shape, and the signals that something new is already underway. It also offers prompts and insights for others to pay attention in their own contexts—to notice what is emerging in their own patch, and to take small, intentional steps toward the futures they are part of shaping.
Chateau Duffy by Rachel Johnson
Insightopen/closeThis piece, written by participant Rachel Johnson, reflects on Chateau Duffy—not just as a project, but as an experience.
What began as the restoration of a crumbling 400-year-old barn became something far more relational: a shared endeavor shaped by effort, conversation, and time spent together. Over weeks and years, people gathered to build, but also to listen, to question, and to connect.
Rachel’s reflection captures what is often harder to articulate—the atmosphere of the place, the texture of the experience, and the subtle ways people were changed by it. It explores what happens when strangers become collaborators, and when work becomes a context for deeper dialogue about life, belief, and belonging.
More than a record, this piece offers an interpretation. It holds together the visible and the invisible outcomes of the project—reminding us that what is built in spaces like this is not just physical, but human.
Download PDFTestimonials
Shannon inspires us to imagine more, to playfully experiment and to stretch our thinking. Our work with Imagine Foundation is more impactful and more joyous as a result.
– Diane Eyre, co-founder Imagine Foundation
Shannon’s ability to achieve good through connection is unmatched. Like an accomplished chemist, she brings together all of the necessary people, mixes them in the right environment, and facilitates reaction that has profound impact.
– Greg Richards, founder Greg Richards Law
Shannon’s rare combination of design intelligence and convening intuition has catalyzed relationships, ideas, and collaborations that have profoundly shaped my work and strengthened the broader faith-rooted innovation ecosystem.
– Elizabeth Le’anani Coffee, Managing Director, Lake Institute on Faith & Giving
Shannon’s perspective always challenges me to think bigger and more deeply. Her curiosity and courage are inspiring – she sees the distant flicker of possibilities where others only see the dark.
– Greg Richards, founder Greg Richards Law
Shannon sees the future, and from ten paces ahead and calls to our imaginations; then carefully – so very carefully- orchestrates new collaborations to realise it.
– Matt Valler PhD, founder Labrynth.city