Many modern philanthropists are building impact that lasts, though it may not look like the brick-and-mortar projects of previous eras. These five dimensions are a helpful guide.
A response to SSIR’s Summer 2026 cover essay: “I am especially uncomfortable with the suggestion that for-profit billionaires are better suited to found and run mission-driven civic organizations than the nonprofit leaders currently doing so.”
Lessons from Los Angeles, Chicago, and Minneapolis on defending our neighbors and democracy
Part of a new in-depth series
To decarbonize infrastructure, we need to look beyond technological fixes and learn to build coalitions.
Building power in communities now will protect them from the next threat to democracy.
A lens for understanding business leaders' ability to act in alignment with their values.
To solve problems that don’t want to be solved, design for the unspoken social conventions that hold them in place. Coming in September: An SSIR Webinar on norm design. Learn more
We need rigorous impact evaluations of AI in the social sector to ensure that it promotes social welfare.
Let us take clarity from destruction as we redevelop development.
An excerpt from The Nonprofit Paradox by Nehal Gandhi
When the village cannot wait, philanthropy must learn from community.
In Paul Almeida's Climate Change and Civic Engagement, the only pathway forward is broad worker-based civic alliances that go beyond narrow elite-driven technological decarbonization.
Recognition, distortion, and the organizing infrastructure behind Minnesota's response to Operation Metro Surge.
The problems are big, the time is short, and the resources are limited.
As AI begins to transform education, work, and social life, we need to focus on developing and expanding capacities essential for human flourishing.
Why the ghost of Paul Farmer wants you scaring the horses at Skoll
In a world that no longer behaves like a scalable system, success must be something other than growth.
Recognition, distortion, and the organizing infrastructure behind Minnesota's response to Operation Metro Surge.
