Philanthropy & Funding
The New Gilded Age Needs Civic Leaders, Not Just Philanthropists
What a new generation of entrepreneurial donors should learn from legacy institutions and leaders.
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Education
To Save Our Schools,
Trust Young People
Young people have done more than enough to earn our trust. Policy makers not so much.
Design Thinking
The Science of Norm Design
To solve problems that don’t want to be solved, design for the unspoken social conventions that hold them in place. Read a fascinating feature story on understanding the role norms play in design thinking.
Philanthropy & Funding
Building the Refugee Economy
As humanitarian aid agencies buckle under the collapse of financial support, the private sector must step in to invest in refugees and integrate them into the economy.
Leadership
Empowering Female Muslim Leaders
The Led By Foundation helps Indian Muslim women achieve their career goals in the face of discrimination.
Scaling
Against Rushing to Scale
When impact brings pressure to expand, leaders can (and must) carefully decide when growth helps and when it hurts.
Education
Changemaker U.
While Ashesi University began by borrowing ideas, methods, and credibility from elsewhere, it has evolved into a uniquely Ghanaian enterprise that is a model for Africa and the world.
Civic Engagement
Bookstores as Civic Centers
The indie bookstore movement believes the future of bookstores lies in their ability to serve as thriving community spaces.
Latest
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Schools as Shared Civic Infrastructure
How can we teach students to embrace their civic identity as members of their communities and support them in leading our nation's democratic renaissance?
Advocacy
We Need to Close the Hope Gap
Successful advocacy requires not only increasing support on our issues, but inspiring people to believe that they can win. | This article is free to all readers thanks to sponsorship by BLIS Collective.
Review
Economic Development
The Ambiguous Rise of Microfinance
Two recent books explore the modern prominence of the global financial-inclusion agenda and argue about how it got there.
sponsored
Educating as if Democracy Depends on It
Preparing young people to participate and govern means moving beyond entrusting civic learning to a single course in high school or an elective on campus.
Measurement & Evaluation
Philanthropy’s Most Important Metric Is the One It Never Measures
We judge philanthropic capital's impact by what it builds while it is building. We should judge by what stands, without it, after the grant has ended.
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Most Commented
Impact Investing
There Is No Such Thing as Impact Investing
There is philanthropic investing, and there is commercial investing, and there is nothing in between.
Scaling
Scale Really Matters
The problems are big, the time is short, and the resources are limited.
Education
Welcome to the Era of Relational Intelligence
As AI begins to transform education, work, and social life, we need to focus on developing and expanding capacities essential for human flourishing.
Philanthropy & Funding
Does Everything in the Social Sector Need to Scale?
In a world that no longer behaves like a scalable system, success must be something other than growth.
Philanthropy & Funding
Why Don’t Philanthropists Build Anymore?
The United States is living through a second Gilded Age. But unlike yesterday's magnates, today's billionaires prefer to write checks to existing organizations. They should instead build institutions that last.