Leaders Who Future
A Foresight Retreat for Senior Leaders in Philanthropy & Social Impact
14- 18 February 2027
Bangalore, India
Max 25 Participants
In partnership with Quest Alliance
If you’re a senior leader in philanthropy or the social impact world, you already know: the future isn’t slowing down for any of us.
This four-day residential retreat is your invitation to step out of crisis-mode, zoom out from the noise, and strengthen the foresight muscles every leader now needs. Through the Rogue Futurism 6-Step Method, you’ll learn to navigate uncertainty with calm confidence, imagine and “pre-live” multiple futures, and turn those futures into strategic actions you can use the moment you return to your organization or community.
This course has been specially tailored for grantmakers and organizational leaders in the social impact world. It is intended to help you answer the kinds of questions that you are facing with conviction.
This edition of Leaders Who Future is co-hosted with Quest Alliance, an Indian organisation that has spent years helping young people across the country navigate and shape their own futures. Their CEO, Aakash Sethi, is himself an alumnus of Leaders Who Future, and we could not have asked for a more fitting partner to bring this retreat to India.
WHAT MAKES THIS RETREAT DIFFERENT
This is foresight especially adapted to the social change field.
The Rogue Futurism method is designed specifically for the messy, political, under-resourced reality of social impact organizations and has been tailored for the context that grantmakers and leaders like you are operating in.
You will practice foresight with your own real work and leave with insights for strategies you can apply immediately.
This is a real retreat—not your typical workshop or conference.
What makes this particularly powerful is where and how it happens.
We’ve designed this retreat as an intimate, community-powered foresight experience nestled in nature, set inside a residential environment designed for depth, rest, strategic clarity, and the kind of human connection leaders rarely get space for. It is a space where leaders can finally exhale, think expansively, and reconnect with their sense of possibility. Surrounded by trees, calm, and fresh air (instead of fluorescent lights and windowless meeting rooms), the group slowly gets into a rhythm of reflection, imagination, and real connection.
Because transformative futures work needs the right environment—one that makes your nervous system feel safe, rested, and creative.
And when you’re in a small cohort of leaders living, learning, and imagining together for several days, something rare happens: trust builds, insights deepen, and community magic takes over. People leave these spaces not just with new tools—but with new allies.
A place where futures are already being lived
This year’s retreat takes place inside the Quest Learning Observatory, a space that Quest Alliance has built around the very muscles we will be strengthening.
For four days we will learn foresight while surrounded by the evidence of what happens when a community and an organisation practise futures thinking for years with young people: gardens that feed the kitchen, buildings made from the earth beneath them, and artefacts of the future created with artists from across India. It makes the learning embodied in a way that few places in the world can offer.
An intimate community experience like no other
Foresight work is powerful—but it becomes transformative when done together.
Something shifts when a group of leaders set aside their titles, step into a shared space in nature, eat together, laugh together, explore futures together, and witness each other’s insights.
With a maximum of 25 participants, every conversation matters. You will actually know, trust, and learn from each person in the room.
By day three, the room no longer feels like “participants” — it feels like a circle, the beginnings of a peer community that sees you not just as a leader, but as a human being navigating complex futures with courage.
Nestled in nature for deeper clarity
Neuroscience backs it: creative thinking, systems perspective, and futures imagination all strengthen when we’re immersed in natural surroundings.
In other words: the place itself becomes part of the pedagogy.
You will be supported by a community long after the retreat is over.
As with all Rogue Union experiences, you won’t leave with skills alone—you’ll leave with a community. Your fee includes a full year of access to the Rogue Futurism online community (normally 999 EUR), giving you space to keep strengthening what you learned long after the course ends. You’ll have regular events and talks, peer support, and the self-paced online version of the course so you can revisit the tools and ideas whenever you need them.
You will have space.
You will have quiet.
You will have community.
You will have clarity.
And when all of the above come together,
futures thinking becomes not just a skill—but a way of leading.
WHO THIS RETREAT IS FOR
Senior leaders, directors, and seasoned practitioners working in:
Philanthropy and grantmaking
Social impact
Our Rogue Futurism foresight approach was developed specifically for the realities of the social impact sector—not a copy-paste of corporate methodologies that rarely land in the unique context of changemakers and their funders/partners. We will be using examples that speak to the real challenges and issues of leaders working for social change, particularly in the field of philanthropy and social justice.
Format & Schedule
In-person
Fully Residential
14-18 February 2027
Arrival in India: Before 14:00 of 14 February
Retreat days: 15-18 February (4 full days)
Departure: 17:00 on 18 February
What You'll Learn
By the end of the retreat, you will:
Strengthen real futures muscles
Learn practical foresight tools used in strategy, programming, organizational planning—and even personal decision-making. Build a mindset that can see beyond crises and into possibility.
Bring futures back home
Learn how to cultivate a futuring culture inside your team or organization, without overwhelm or unrealistic expectations.
Build multi-future strategies
Turn insights from multiple scenarios into actionable, resilient plans that hold up no matter which future arrives.
What You'll Receive
All retreat materials, templates, and tools
A curated reading/ watching/listening list to nurture you after the retreat
12 month-membership to the Rogue Futurism online community, where we do regular events that help you practice and further strengthen your new futures muscles with fellow Rogue Futurists (normally priced at 999 EUR)
12-month access to the self-paced online version of the course, to help you refresh on some of the ideas and examples long after the retreat
Scenario simulation experiences
A global network of peers who “future” with you
One-hour post-retreat coaching call with the instructors
What We Ask From You
This is a deep, immersive learning experience. To get the most out of it, we ask that you come with:
Full presence. Give yourself permission to step away from the daily noise. We expect presence, honesty, and a willingness to go a little deeper than usual—because that’s where the real transformation in foresight happens.
Engagement with your emotions, not just your intellect. Futures thinking is a whole-being experience. You will encounter futures that feel unsettling, undesirable—or even futures you’ve spent years pushing against. This is intentional. Learning to face the full spectrum of possibilities takes the shock out of the equation and builds the calm, grounded agility leaders need.
Openness in group and small-group work. The breakthroughs come from the conversations, not the slides.
Curiosity, flexibility, and a willingness to unlearn. Futures thinking often invites us to let go of old assumptions and try on new lenses.
An understanding that this is strategic time—for you and for your organization. Protect it as such.
Course Instructors
PRICE
We have a two-tier pricing model.
Indian leaders who come from NGOs or are working independently, and are NOT funders, pay a reduced fee that reflects the resources realistically available to civil society in India.
Everyone else, meaning participants from outside India or funders and philanthropic leaders (whether from India or beyond), pays the full fee. The full fee covers the true cost of running the retreat and also makes it possible for Indian nonprofit leaders to join us.
This is our way of building a sustainable offering: one that welcomes people with an honest understanding of the very different resources they bring, and that asks all of us to look after one another by each putting in our share. Everyone contributes, and no one attends for free. If you are paying the full fee, you are helping create a room that is richer, more diverse and more deeply grounded in the realities of the communities this work is meant to serve, and we are very grateful to you for it.
Retreat Fee
Reduced Fee
for Indian nonprofit leaders
(non-funders)
€1,800
€1,800
(exclusive of 21% VAT)
Regular Fee
for participants from outside India, and funders from India and elsewhere
€2,250
€2,250
(exclusive of 21% VAT)
Your retreat fee covers everything: the course itself, 12-month access to the Rogue Futurism community and self-paced course (normally priced at 999 EUR), and all your meals, snacks, coffee/tea and accommodation from the night of 14 February until the afternoon of 18 February.
You will stay at either Hotel Grand Palais or Confluence Club, Good Earth Malhar, both a short walk from the venue (see below).
Everyone stays with us for the full retreat, including those who live in Bangalore. We ask this because the retreat works best as a true pause. Stepping off the hamster wheel of commutes, inboxes and daily demands for a few days is what gives your mind the space to rest, wander and imagine. It is also where so much of the magic happens: in conversations over dinner, walks through the garden and the trust that builds when we live alongside each other.
The retreat fee excludes tickets for trains or flights and transfer to and from the venue.
Our Venue
The retreat will be held at the Quest Learning Observatory (QLO), a living lab for regenerative futures run by Quest Alliance in Kengeri, on the green western edge of Bangalore, about 1.5 hours from Kempegowda International Airport.
QLO is one of the few places in the world where futures work truly comes to life. Its walls are made from earth dug on the site, its timbers reclaimed from an 80-year-old ship deck, and its roof covered in solar panels that power the whole space.
Rainwater is harvested, greywater feeds the gardens and kitchen scraps go back into the soil. A spiral permaculture garden supplies the community kitchen where we will share our meals, and the team logs every kilo harvested and composted. In the Regen Futures Museum, artists from across India have imagined artefacts of possible futures, from a water kiosk for the year 2037 to a tablescape asking what we will be eating in the decades to come.
QLO sits beside Good Earth Malhar, a 50-acre eco-village modelled on traditional Indian villages, with homes clustered around courtyards and verandahs, native planting and winding streets full of community life.
We will stay in two places moments from the venue: Hotel Grand Palais is a boutique hotel just a few steps from QLO, with sunlit verandahs and heritage-style common areas. Confluence Club - Good Earth Malhar is a smaller place inside the eco-village itself, with nine light-filled guest suites looking out over the grounds, a swimming pool, a spa, yoga halls and the vegetarian-leaning Bayleaf Café.
All of these spaces are a calm, green and deeply embodied way into futures work, and we can think of no better place to build these muscles together.
VOICES FROM
THE ROGUES
VOICES FROM
THE ROGUES
“Rarely do I leave a professional training, workshop, or retreat feeling equally enthusiastic about the people I met, the content and methodology, and the questions that continue to resonate in my daily work. Leaders Who Future does exactly that—and more. The balance between theory and practice, between deep engagement and meaningful self-reflection, between focused work and genuine fun is incredibly delicate in these kinds of spaces. Kriz masters it. Her attention to every detail before, during, and after the retreat creates an experience that stays with you—professionally as well as personally—for a long time. If you are ready to step away from the rush of everyday work and invest in building your “future muscles” through real-life examples and alongside an inspiring group of people, don’t miss Leaders Who Future.”
Meltem Aslan Çelikkan
Founder and Director, Antenna
“Krizna and the team gently corrected us: not *the* future. *Futures*. Plural. The distinction sounds awfully simple, until, with the benefit of hindsight, I realised what it actually did to me: shifting from being a passive recipient of an inevitable trajectory to being an active agent in a contested one. In that sense, it's the difference between adaptation and imagination, and it left me with a different relationship to hope. Hope is not something you wait for, but something you can do. And a reminder that the work of shaping futures starts with the quality of your imagination, not just the quality of your strategy.”
Gautam John
CEO, Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies
"Leaders Who Future is a crash course in futures thinking, and it doesn’t let you stay on the sidelines. Through real-world scenarios and well-crafted frameworks, you’re placed at the centre of the choices, and you see how decisions made today ripple into the futures we end up living in. For me, the real insight was how foresight and narrative-building work hand in hand. For an organisation like Quest Alliance, committed to building hopeful futures for young people, that connection is invaluable."
Aakash Sethi
CEO, Quest Alliance
“The Leaders Who Future retreat was a transformative experience for me. It gave me the space to step out of day-to-day urgency and anticipate change, work with uncertainty, and imagine multiple possible futures. I became aware of my blind spots and gaps in my knowledge that had been limiting my perspective. Since then, I have intentionally expanded my learning into areas like technology and AI. Beyond practical tools, the retreat also shifted my mindset: I am no longer anxious about what lies ahead, but excited by the possibilities and challenges, grounded in greater clarity, curiosity, and confidence.”
Moreangels Mbizah
Founder and Executive Director, Wildlife Conservation Action
"A few short days in the forest transformed how I think about my role in possible futures. Kriz and her team challenged us to think beyond our current boundaries, and helped us anchor new ideas within the decisions we might be faced with as leaders. The retreat explored futures and was also a hands-on immersion in effective tools. We had space to slow our thinking and test our assumptions. We were invited to balance uncertainty with moving forward toward action. We left inspired, possibly wiser (!), and better prepared to meet new realities. On a personal level, I emerged energized, and with a clearer sense of how I can contribute to change."
Kecia Bertermann
Associate Partner, Itad
"The first Rogue Futures retreat was an absolute treat! Kriz, James and Miguel facilitated the four days beautifully, balancing learning, thinking, and doing with plenty of fresh air so that we could start to build futures muscles in the company of new friends. I came away with my head buzzing in the best possible way. What a privilege to have been part of it, thank you all!"
Nicola Barrett
Senior Partnerships & Strategy Consultant
How to Sign up
Fill out the registration form. We will ask you for your reasons for wanting to come to our retreat.
You will receive a confirmation of your attendance from us, along with your invoice and payment instructions.
You’ll have 7 days from the date you receive the invoice to complete the payment and secure your spot.
Interested but unsure? Schedule a 20-minute call with our Lead Futurist, Kriz.
Visas
Participants are responsible for checking their own visa requirements and applying for their own Indian visas. If you expect to run into difficulties with this, please write to us at explore@rogueunion.org before you register so we can talk it through with you.
Deadline
We are accepting applications on a rolling basis. We will close registrations once all the spots are taken, so do sign up quickly.
Cancellation Policy
We know life can throw curveballs, and we genuinely want to offer as much flexibility as possible. At the same time, this retreat relies on partner venues and hotels that cannot accommodate last-minute cancellations. Plus we have only a limited number of spots and a short period until the event. When one person cancels late, it affects the venues, the group dynamic, and someone on the waitlist who could have joined if given enough time.
To honour everyone involved—participants, hosts, and our partners—our cancellation policy is:
Residential Fee
This portion is non-cancellable.
Course Fee
Cancellations for the course fee are possible under the following timelines:
Until 17 December 2026: Full refund
18 December 2026 to 8 January 2027: 50% refund
From 9 January 2027 onwards: No refund.
We also want to be fair: If we are able to find someone to take your spot, we will refund you 100%, regardless of the date. We’ll let you know right away if this becomes possible.
Thank you for honouring the commitment you make by signing up, and for helping us run a retreat that respects everyone’s time and work.
Ready to Future?
A rare, intimate cohort. Only 25 seats.
If futures readiness is the leadership skill you’ve been needing—but haven’t had the space to truly learn—this retreat is for you.
Leaders Who Future
A Foresight Retreat for Senior Leaders in Philanthropy & Social Impact
14- 18 February 2027
Bangalore, India
Max 25 Participants
In partnership with Quest Alliance
If you’re a senior leader in philanthropy or the social impact world, you already know: the future isn’t slowing down for any of us.
This four-day residential retreat is your invitation to step out of crisis-mode, zoom out from the noise, and strengthen the foresight muscles every leader now needs. Through the Rogue Futurism 6-Step Method, you’ll learn to navigate uncertainty with calm confidence, imagine and “pre-live” multiple futures, and turn those futures into strategic actions you can use the moment you return to your organization or community.
This course has been specially tailored for grantmakers and organizational leaders in the social impact world. It is intended to help you answer the kinds of questions that you are facing with conviction.
This edition of Leaders Who Future is co-hosted with Quest Alliance, an Indian organisation that has spent years helping young people across the country navigate and shape their own futures. Their CEO, Aakash Sethi, is himself an alumnus of Leaders Who Future, and we could not have asked for a more fitting partner to bring this retreat to India.
WHAT MAKES THIS RETREAT DIFFERENT
This is foresight especially adapted to the social change field.
The Rogue Futurism method is designed specifically for the messy, political, under-resourced reality of social impact organizations and has been tailored for the context that grantmakers and leaders like you are operating in.
You will practice foresight with your own real work and leave with insights for strategies you can apply immediately.
This is a real retreat—not your typical workshop or conference.
What makes this particularly powerful is where and how it happens.
We’ve designed this retreat as an intimate, community-powered foresight experience nestled in nature, set inside a residential environment designed for depth, rest, strategic clarity, and the kind of human connection leaders rarely get space for. It is a space where leaders can finally exhale, think expansively, and reconnect with their sense of possibility. Surrounded by trees, calm, and fresh air (instead of fluorescent lights and windowless meeting rooms), the group slowly gets into a rhythm of reflection, imagination, and real connection.
Because transformative futures work needs the right environment—one that makes your nervous system feel safe, rested, and creative.
And when you’re in a small cohort of leaders living, learning, and imagining together for several days, something rare happens: trust builds, insights deepen, and community magic takes over. People leave these spaces not just with new tools—but with new allies.
A place where futures are already being lived
This year’s retreat takes place inside the Quest Learning Observatory, a space that Quest Alliance has built around the very muscles we will be strengthening.
For four days we will learn foresight while surrounded by the evidence of what happens when a community and an organisation practise futures thinking for years with young people: gardens that feed the kitchen, buildings made from the earth beneath them, and artefacts of the future created with artists from across India. It makes the learning embodied in a way that few places in the world can offer.
An intimate community experience like no other
Foresight work is powerful—but it becomes transformative when done together.
Something shifts when a group of leaders set aside their titles, step into a shared space in nature, eat together, laugh together, explore futures together, and witness each other’s insights.
With a maximum of 25 participants, every conversation matters. You will actually know, trust, and learn from each person in the room.
By day three, the room no longer feels like “participants” — it feels like a circle, the beginnings of a peer community that sees you not just as a leader, but as a human being navigating complex futures with courage.
Nestled in nature for deeper clarity
Neuroscience backs it: creative thinking, systems perspective, and futures imagination all strengthen when we’re immersed in natural surroundings.
In other words: the place itself becomes part of the pedagogy.
You will be supported by a community long after the retreat is over.
As with all Rogue Union experiences, you won’t leave with skills alone—you’ll leave with a community. Your fee includes a full year of access to the Rogue Futurism online community (normally 999 EUR), giving you space to keep strengthening what you learned long after the course ends. You’ll have regular events and talks, peer support, and the self-paced online version of the course so you can revisit the tools and ideas whenever you need them.
You will have space.
You will have quiet.
You will have community.
You will have clarity.
And when all of the above come together,
futures thinking becomes not just a skill—but a way of leading.
WHO THIS RETREAT IS FOR
Senior leaders, directors, and seasoned practitioners working in:
Philanthropy and grantmaking
Social impact
Our Rogue Futurism foresight approach was developed specifically for the realities of the social impact sector—not a copy-paste of corporate methodologies that rarely land in the unique context of changemakers and their funders/partners. We will be using examples that speak to the real challenges and issues of leaders working for social change, particularly in the field of philanthropy and social justice.
Format & Schedule
In-person
Fully Residential
14-18 February 2027
Arrival in India: Before 14:00 of 14 February
Retreat days: 15-18 February (4 full days)
Departure: 17:00 on 18 February
What You'll Learn
By the end of the retreat, you will:
Strengthen real futures muscles
Learn practical foresight tools used in strategy, programming, organizational planning—and even personal decision-making. Build a mindset that can see beyond crises and into possibility.
Bring futures back home
Learn how to cultivate a futuring culture inside your team or organization, without overwhelm or unrealistic expectations.
Build multi-future strategies
Turn insights from multiple scenarios into actionable, resilient plans that hold up no matter which future arrives.
What You'll Receive
All retreat materials, templates, and tools
A curated reading/ watching/listening list to nurture you after the retreat
12 month-membership to the Rogue Futurism online community, where we do regular events that help you practice and further strengthen your new futures muscles with fellow Rogue Futurists (normally priced at 999 EUR)
12-month access to the self-paced online version of the course, to help you refresh on some of the ideas and examples long after the retreat
Scenario simulation experiences
A global network of peers who “future” with you
One-hour post-retreat coaching call with the instructors
What We Ask From You
This is a deep, immersive learning experience. To get the most out of it, we ask that you come with:
Full presence. Give yourself permission to step away from the daily noise. We expect presence, honesty, and a willingness to go a little deeper than usual—because that’s where the real transformation in foresight happens.
Engagement with your emotions, not just your intellect. Futures thinking is a whole-being experience. You will encounter futures that feel unsettling, undesirable—or even futures you’ve spent years pushing against. This is intentional. Learning to face the full spectrum of possibilities takes the shock out of the equation and builds the calm, grounded agility leaders need.
Openness in group and small-group work. The breakthroughs come from the conversations, not the slides.
Curiosity, flexibility, and a willingness to unlearn. Futures thinking often invites us to let go of old assumptions and try on new lenses.
An understanding that this is strategic time—for you and for your organization. Protect it as such.
Course Instructors
PRICE
We have a two-tier pricing model.
Indian leaders who come from NGOs or are working independently, and are NOT funders, pay a reduced fee that reflects the resources realistically available to civil society in India.
Everyone else, meaning participants from outside India or funders and philanthropic leaders (whether from India or beyond), pays the full fee. The full fee covers the true cost of running the retreat and also makes it possible for Indian nonprofit leaders to join us.
This is our way of building a sustainable offering: one that welcomes people with an honest understanding of the very different resources they bring, and that asks all of us to look after one another by each putting in our share. Everyone contributes, and no one attends for free. If you are paying the full fee, you are helping create a room that is richer, more diverse and more deeply grounded in the realities of the communities this work is meant to serve, and we are very grateful to you for it.
Retreat Fee
Reduced Fee
for Indian nonprofit leaders
(non-funders)
€1,800
€1,800
(exclusive of 21% VAT)
Regular Fee
for participants from outside India, and funders from India and elsewhere
€2,250
€2,250
(exclusive of 21% VAT)
Your retreat fee covers everything: the course itself, 12-month access to the Rogue Futurism community and self-paced course (normally priced at 999 EUR), and all your meals, snacks, coffee/tea and accommodation from the night of 14 February until the afternoon of 18 February.
You will stay at either Hotel Grand Palais or Confluence Club, Good Earth Malhar, both a short walk from the venue (see below).
Everyone stays with us for the full retreat, including those who live in Bangalore. We ask this because the retreat works best as a true pause. Stepping off the hamster wheel of commutes, inboxes and daily demands for a few days is what gives your mind the space to rest, wander and imagine. It is also where so much of the magic happens: in conversations over dinner, walks through the garden and the trust that builds when we live alongside each other.
The retreat fee excludes tickets for trains or flights and transfer to and from the venue.
Our Venue
The retreat will be held at the Quest Learning Observatory (QLO), a living lab for regenerative futures run by Quest Alliance in Kengeri, on the green western edge of Bangalore, about 1.5 hours from Kempegowda International Airport.
QLO is one of the few places in the world where futures work truly comes to life. Its walls are made from earth dug on the site, its timbers reclaimed from an 80-year-old ship deck, and its roof covered in solar panels that power the whole space.
Rainwater is harvested, greywater feeds the gardens and kitchen scraps go back into the soil. A spiral permaculture garden supplies the community kitchen where we will share our meals, and the team logs every kilo harvested and composted. In the Regen Futures Museum, artists from across India have imagined artefacts of possible futures, from a water kiosk for the year 2037 to a tablescape asking what we will be eating in the decades to come.
QLO sits beside Good Earth Malhar, a 50-acre eco-village modelled on traditional Indian villages, with homes clustered around courtyards and verandahs, native planting and winding streets full of community life.
We will stay in two places moments from the venue: Hotel Grand Palais is a boutique hotel just a few steps from QLO, with sunlit verandahs and heritage-style common areas. Confluence Club - Good Earth Malhar is a smaller place inside the eco-village itself, with nine light-filled guest suites looking out over the grounds, a swimming pool, a spa, yoga halls and the vegetarian-leaning Bayleaf Café.
All of these spaces are a calm, green and deeply embodied way into futures work, and we can think of no better place to build these muscles together.
VOICES FROM
THE ROGUES
“Rarely do I leave a professional training, workshop, or retreat feeling equally enthusiastic about the people I met, the content and methodology, and the questions that continue to resonate in my daily work. Leaders Who Future does exactly that—and more. The balance between theory and practice, between deep engagement and meaningful self-reflection, between focused work and genuine fun is incredibly delicate in these kinds of spaces. Kriz masters it. Her attention to every detail before, during, and after the retreat creates an experience that stays with you—professionally as well as personally—for a long time. If you are ready to step away from the rush of everyday work and invest in building your “future muscles” through real-life examples and alongside an inspiring group of people, don’t miss Leaders Who Future.”
Meltem Aslan Çelikkan
Founder and Director, Antenna
“Krizna and the team gently corrected us: not *the* future. *Futures*. Plural. The distinction sounds awfully simple, until, with the benefit of hindsight, I realised what it actually did to me: shifting from being a passive recipient of an inevitable trajectory to being an active agent in a contested one. In that sense, it's the difference between adaptation and imagination, and it left me with a different relationship to hope. Hope is not something you wait for, but something you can do. And a reminder that the work of shaping futures starts with the quality of your imagination, not just the quality of your strategy.”
Gautam John
CEO, Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies
"Leaders Who Future is a crash course in futures thinking, and it doesn’t let you stay on the sidelines. Through real-world scenarios and well-crafted frameworks, you’re placed at the centre of the choices, and you see how decisions made today ripple into the futures we end up living in. For me, the real insight was how foresight and narrative-building work hand in hand. For an organisation like Quest Alliance, committed to building hopeful futures for young people, that connection is invaluable."
Aakash Sethi
CEO, Quest Alliance
“The Leaders Who Future retreat was a transformative experience for me. It gave me the space to step out of day-to-day urgency and anticipate change, work with uncertainty, and imagine multiple possible futures. I became aware of my blind spots and gaps in my knowledge that had been limiting my perspective. Since then, I have intentionally expanded my learning into areas like technology and AI. Beyond practical tools, the retreat also shifted my mindset: I am no longer anxious about what lies ahead, but excited by the possibilities and challenges, grounded in greater clarity, curiosity, and confidence.”
Moreangels Mbizah
Founder and Executive Director, Wildlife Conservation Action
"A few short days in the forest transformed how I think about my role in possible futures. Kriz and her team challenged us to think beyond our current boundaries, and helped us anchor new ideas within the decisions we might be faced with as leaders. The retreat explored futures and was also a hands-on immersion in effective tools. We had space to slow our thinking and test our assumptions. We were invited to balance uncertainty with moving forward toward action. We left inspired, possibly wiser (!), and better prepared to meet new realities. On a personal level, I emerged energized, and with a clearer sense of how I can contribute to change."
Kecia Bertermann
Associate Partner, Itad
"The first Rogue Futures retreat was an absolute treat! Kriz, James and Miguel facilitated the four days beautifully, balancing learning, thinking, and doing with plenty of fresh air so that we could start to build futures muscles in the company of new friends. I came away with my head buzzing in the best possible way. What a privilege to have been part of it, thank you all!"
Nicola Barrett
Senior Partnerships & Strategy Consultant
How to Sign up
Fill out the registration form. We will ask you for your reasons for wanting to come to our retreat.
You will receive a confirmation of your attendance from us, along with your invoice and payment instructions.
You’ll have 7 days from the date you receive the invoice to complete the payment and secure your spot.
Interested but unsure? Schedule a 20-minute call with our Lead Futurist, Kriz.
Visas
Participants are responsible for checking their own visa requirements and applying for their own Indian visas. If you expect to run into difficulties with this, please write to us at explore@rogueunion.org before you register so we can talk it through with you.
Deadline
We are accepting applications on a rolling basis. We will close registrations once all the spots are taken, so do sign up quickly.
Cancellation Policy
We know life can throw curveballs, and we genuinely want to offer as much flexibility as possible. At the same time, this retreat relies on partner venues and hotels that cannot accommodate last-minute cancellations. Plus we have only a limited number of spots and a short period until the event. When one person cancels late, it affects the venues, the group dynamic, and someone on the waitlist who could have joined if given enough time.
To honour everyone involved—participants, hosts, and our partners—our cancellation policy is:
Residential Fee
This portion is non-cancellable.
Course Fee
Cancellations for the course fee are possible under the following timelines:
Until 17 December 2026: Full refund
18 December 2026 to 8 January 2027: 50% refund
From 9 January 2027 onwards: No refund.
We also want to be fair: If we are able to find someone to take your spot, we will refund you 100%, regardless of the date. We’ll let you know right away if this becomes possible.
Thank you for honouring the commitment you make by signing up, and for helping us run a retreat that respects everyone’s time and work.
Ready to Future?
A rare, intimate cohort. Only 25 seats.
If futures readiness is the leadership skill you’ve been needing—but haven’t had the space to truly learn—this retreat is for you.
Leaders Who Future
A Foresight Retreat for Senior Leaders in Philanthropy & Social Impact
14- 18 February 2027
Bangalore, India
Max 25 Participants
In partnership with
Quest Alliance
If you’re a senior leader in philanthropy or the social impact world, you already know: the future isn’t slowing down for any of us.
This four-day residential retreat is your invitation to step out of crisis-mode, zoom out from the noise, and strengthen the foresight muscles every leader now needs. Through the Rogue Futurism 6-Step Method, you’ll learn to navigate uncertainty with calm confidence, imagine and “pre-live” multiple futures, and turn those futures into strategic actions you can use the moment you return to your organization or community.
This course has been specially tailored for grantmakers and organizational leaders in the social impact world. It is intended to help you answer the kinds of questions that you are facing with conviction.
This edition of Leaders Who Future is co-hosted with Quest Alliance, an Indian organisation that has spent years helping young people across the country navigate and shape their own futures. Their CEO, Aakash Sethi, is himself an alumnus of Leaders Who Future, and we could not have asked for a more fitting partner to bring this retreat to India.
WHAT MAKES THIS RETREAT DIFFERENT
This is foresight especially adapted to the social change field.
The Rogue Futurism method is designed specifically for the messy, political, under-resourced reality of social impact organizations and has been tailored for the context that grantmakers and leaders like you are operating in.
You will practice foresight with your own real work and leave with insights for strategies you can apply immediately.
This is a real retreat—not your typical workshop or conference.
What makes this particularly powerful is where and how it happens.
We’ve designed this retreat as an intimate, community-powered foresight experience nestled in nature, set inside a residential environment designed for depth, rest, strategic clarity, and the kind of human connection leaders rarely get space for. It is a space where leaders can finally exhale, think expansively, and reconnect with their sense of possibility. Surrounded by trees, calm, and fresh air (instead of fluorescent lights and windowless meeting rooms), the group slowly gets into a rhythm of reflection, imagination, and real connection.
Because transformative futures work needs the right environment—one that makes your nervous system feel safe, rested, and creative.
And when you’re in a small cohort of leaders living, learning, and imagining together for several days, something rare happens: trust builds, insights deepen, and community magic takes over. People leave these spaces not just with new tools—but with new allies.
A place where futures are already being lived
This year’s retreat takes place inside the Quest Learning Observatory, a space that Quest Alliance has built around the very muscles we will be strengthening.
For four days we will learn foresight while surrounded by the evidence of what happens when a community and an organisation practise futures thinking for years with young people: gardens that feed the kitchen, buildings made from the earth beneath them, and artefacts of the future created with artists from across India. It makes the learning embodied in a way that few places in the world can offer.
An intimate community experience like no other
Foresight work is powerful—but it becomes transformative when done together.
Something shifts when a group of leaders set aside their titles, step into a shared space in nature, eat together, laugh together, explore futures together, and witness each other’s insights.
With a maximum of 25 participants, every conversation matters. You will actually know, trust, and learn from each person in the room.
By day three, the room no longer feels like “participants” — it feels like a circle, the beginnings of a peer community that sees you not just as a leader, but as a human being navigating complex futures with courage.
Nestled in nature for deeper clarity
Neuroscience backs it: creative thinking, systems perspective, and futures imagination all strengthen when we’re immersed in natural surroundings.
In other words: the place itself becomes part of the pedagogy.
You will be supported by a community long after the retreat is over.
As with all Rogue Union experiences, you won’t leave with skills alone—you’ll leave with a community. Your fee includes a full year of access to the Rogue Futurism online community (normally 999 EUR), giving you space to keep strengthening what you learned long after the course ends. You’ll have regular events and talks, peer support, and the self-paced online version of the course so you can revisit the tools and ideas whenever you need them.
You will have space.
You will have quiet.
You will have community.
You will have clarity.
And when all of the above come together,
futures thinking becomes not just a skill—but a way of leading.
WHO THIS RETREAT IS FOR
Senior leaders, directors, and seasoned practitioners working in:
Philanthropy and grantmaking
Social impact
Our Rogue Futurism foresight approach was developed specifically for the realities of the social impact sector—not a copy-paste of corporate methodologies that rarely land in the unique context of changemakers and their funders/partners. We will be using examples that speak to the real challenges and issues of leaders working for social change, particularly in the field of philanthropy and social justice.
Format & Schedule
In-person
Fully Residential
14-18 February 2027
Arrival in India: Before 14:00 of 14 February
Retreat days: 15-18 February (4 full days)
Departure: 17:00 on 18 February
What You'll Learn
By the end of the retreat, you will:
Strengthen real futures muscles
Learn practical foresight tools used in strategy, programming, organizational planning—and even personal decision-making. Build a mindset that can see beyond crises and into possibility.
Bring futures back home
Learn how to cultivate a futuring culture inside your team or organization, without overwhelm or unrealistic expectations.
Build multi-future strategies
Turn insights from multiple scenarios into actionable, resilient plans that hold up no matter which future arrives.
What You'll Receive
All retreat materials, templates, and tools
A curated reading/ watching/listening list to nurture you after the retreat
12 month-membership to the Rogue Futurism online community, where we do regular events that help you practice and further strengthen your new futures muscles with fellow Rogue Futurists (normally priced at 999 EUR)
12-month access to the self-paced online version of the course, to help you refresh on some of the ideas and examples long after the retreat
Scenario simulation experiences
A global network of peers who “future” with you
One-hour post-retreat coaching call with the instructors
What We Ask From You
This is a deep, immersive learning experience. To get the most out of it, we ask that you come with:
Full presence. Give yourself permission to step away from the daily noise. We expect presence, honesty, and a willingness to go a little deeper than usual—because that’s where the real transformation in foresight happens.
Engagement with your emotions, not just your intellect. Futures thinking is a whole-being experience. You will encounter futures that feel unsettling, undesirable—or even futures you’ve spent years pushing against. This is intentional. Learning to face the full spectrum of possibilities takes the shock out of the equation and builds the calm, grounded agility leaders need.
Openness in group and small-group work. The breakthroughs come from the conversations, not the slides.
Curiosity, flexibility, and a willingness to unlearn. Futures thinking often invites us to let go of old assumptions and try on new lenses.
An understanding that this is strategic time—for you and for your organization. Protect it as such.
Course Instructors
PRICE
We have a two-tier pricing model.
Indian leaders who come from NGOs or are working independently, and are NOT funders, pay a reduced fee that reflects the resources realistically available to civil society in India.
Everyone else, meaning participants from outside India or funders and philanthropic leaders (whether from India or beyond), pays the full fee. The full fee covers the true cost of running the retreat and also makes it possible for Indian nonprofit leaders to join us.
This is our way of building a sustainable offering: one that welcomes people with an honest understanding of the very different resources they bring, and that asks all of us to look after one another by each putting in our share. Everyone contributes, and no one attends for free. If you are paying the full fee, you are helping create a room that is richer, more diverse and more deeply grounded in the realities of the communities this work is meant to serve, and we are very grateful to you for it.
Retreat Fee
Reduced Fee
for Indian nonprofit leaders (non-funders)
€xxxx
€xxxx
(exclusive of 21% VAT)
Regular Fee
for participants from outside India, and funders from India and elsewhere
€xxxx
€xxxx
(exclusive of 21% VAT)
Your retreat fee covers everything: the course itself, 12-month access to the Rogue Futurism community and self-paced course (normally priced at 999 EUR), and all your meals, snacks, coffee/tea and accommodation from the night of 14 February until the afternoon of 18 February.
You will stay at either Hotel Grand Palais or Confluence Club, Good Earth Malhar, both a short walk from the venue (see below).
Everyone stays with us for the full retreat, including those who live in Bangalore. We ask this because the retreat works best as a true pause. Stepping off the hamster wheel of commutes, inboxes and daily demands for a few days is what gives your mind the space to rest, wander and imagine. It is also where so much of the magic happens: in conversations over dinner, walks through the garden and the trust that builds when we live alongside each other.
The retreat fee excludes tickets for trains or flights and transfer to and from the venue.
Our Venue
The retreat will be held at the Quest Learning Observatory (QLO), a living lab for regenerative futures run by Quest Alliance in Kengeri, on the green western edge of Bangalore, about 1.5 hours from Kempegowda International Airport.
QLO is one of the few places in the world where futures work truly comes to life. Its walls are made from earth dug on the site, its timbers reclaimed from an 80-year-old ship deck, and its roof covered in solar panels that power the whole space.
Rainwater is harvested, greywater feeds the gardens and kitchen scraps go back into the soil. A spiral permaculture garden supplies the community kitchen where we will share our meals, and the team logs every kilo harvested and composted. In the Regen Futures Museum, artists from across India have imagined artefacts of possible futures, from a water kiosk for the year 2037 to a tablescape asking what we will be eating in the decades to come.
QLO sits beside Good Earth Malhar, a 50-acre eco-village modelled on traditional Indian villages, with homes clustered around courtyards and verandahs, native planting and winding streets full of community life.
We will stay in two places moments from the venue: Hotel Grand Palais is a boutique hotel just a few steps from QLO, with sunlit verandahs and heritage-style common areas. Confluence Club - Good Earth Malhar is a smaller place inside the eco-village itself, with nine light-filled guest suites looking out over the grounds, a swimming pool, a spa, yoga halls and the vegetarian-leaning Bayleaf Café.
All of these spaces are a calm, green and deeply embodied way into futures work, and we can think of no better place to build these muscles together.
VOICES FROM
THE ROGUES
“Rarely do I leave a professional training, workshop, or retreat feeling equally enthusiastic about the people I met, the content and methodology, and the questions that continue to resonate in my daily work. Leaders Who Future does exactly that—and more. The balance between theory and practice, between deep engagement and meaningful self-reflection, between focused work and genuine fun is incredibly delicate in these kinds of spaces. Kriz masters it. Her attention to every detail before, during, and after the retreat creates an experience that stays with you—professionally as well as personally—for a long time. If you are ready to step away from the rush of everyday work and invest in building your “future muscles” through real-life examples and alongside an inspiring group of people, don’t miss Leaders Who Future.”
Meltem Aslan Çelikkan
Founder and Director, Antenna
“Krizna and the team gently corrected us: not *the* future. *Futures*. Plural. The distinction sounds awfully simple, until, with the benefit of hindsight, I realised what it actually did to me: shifting from being a passive recipient of an inevitable trajectory to being an active agent in a contested one. In that sense, it's the difference between adaptation and imagination, and it left me with a different relationship to hope. Hope is not something you wait for, but something you can do. And a reminder that the work of shaping futures starts with the quality of your imagination, not just the quality of your strategy.”
Gautam John
CEO, Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies
"Leaders Who Future is a crash course in futures thinking, and it doesn’t let you stay on the sidelines. Through real-world scenarios and well-crafted frameworks, you’re placed at the centre of the choices, and you see how decisions made today ripple into the futures we end up living in. For me, the real insight was how foresight and narrative-building work hand in hand. For an organisation like Quest Alliance, committed to building hopeful futures for young people, that connection is invaluable."
Aakash Sethi
CEO, Quest Alliance
“The Leaders Who Future retreat was a transformative experience for me. It gave me the space to step out of day-to-day urgency and anticipate change, work with uncertainty, and imagine multiple possible futures. I became aware of my blind spots and gaps in my knowledge that had been limiting my perspective. Since then, I have intentionally expanded my learning into areas like technology and AI. Beyond practical tools, the retreat also shifted my mindset: I am no longer anxious about what lies ahead, but excited by the possibilities and challenges, grounded in greater clarity, curiosity, and confidence.”
Moreangels Mbizah
Founder and Executive Director, Wildlife Conservation Action
"A few short days in the forest transformed how I think about my role in possible futures. Kriz and her team challenged us to think beyond our current boundaries, and helped us anchor new ideas within the decisions we might be faced with as leaders. The retreat explored futures and was also a hands-on immersion in effective tools. We had space to slow our thinking and test our assumptions. We were invited to balance uncertainty with moving forward toward action. We left inspired, possibly wiser (!), and better prepared to meet new realities. On a personal level, I emerged energized, and with a clearer sense of how I can contribute to change."
Kecia Bertermann
Associate Partner, Itad
"The first Rogue Futures retreat was an absolute treat! Kriz, James and Miguel facilitated the four days beautifully, balancing learning, thinking, and doing with plenty of fresh air so that we could start to build futures muscles in the company of new friends. I came away with my head buzzing in the best possible way. What a privilege to have been part of it, thank you all!"
Nicola Barrett
Senior Partnerships & Strategy Consultant
How to Sign up
Fill out the registration form. We will ask you for your reasons for wanting to come to our retreat.
You will receive a confirmation of your attendance from us, along with your invoice and payment instructions.
You’ll have 7 days from the date you receive the invoice to complete the payment and secure your spot.
Interested but unsure? Schedule a 20-minute call with our Lead Futurist, Kriz.
Visas
Participants are responsible for checking their own visa requirements and applying for their own Indian visas. If you expect to run into difficulties with this, please write to us at explore@rogueunion.org before you register so we can talk it through with you.
Deadline
We are accepting applications on a rolling basis. We will close registrations once all the spots are taken, so do sign up quickly.
Cancellation Policy
We know life can throw curveballs, and we genuinely want to offer as much flexibility as possible. At the same time, this retreat relies on partner venues and hotels that cannot accommodate last-minute cancellations. Plus we have only a limited number of spots and a short period until the event. When one person cancels late, it affects the venues, the group dynamic, and someone on the waitlist who could have joined if given enough time.
To honour everyone involved—participants, hosts, and our partners—our cancellation policy is:
Residential Fee
This portion is non-cancellable.
Course Fee
Cancellations for the course fee are possible under the following timelines:
Until 17 December 2026: Full refund
18 December 2026 to 8 January 2027: 50% refund
From 9 January 2027 onwards: No refund.
We also want to be fair: If we are able to find someone to take your spot, we will refund you 100%, regardless of the date. We’ll let you know right away if this becomes possible.
Thank you for honouring the commitment you make by signing up, and for helping us run a retreat that respects everyone’s time and work.
Ready to Future?
A rare, intimate cohort. Only 25 seats.
If futures readiness is the leadership skill you’ve been needing—but haven’t had the space to truly learn—this retreat is for you.
