Nonprofits & NGOs
Donor Retention Requires Transformation
To solve the nonprofit sector's donor retention crisis, we need to look past tactics and superficial reform: We need to transform philanthropy to make philanthropy truly transformative.
Technology
Our Vanishing Developmental Commons
What human capacities must remain stubbornly human, even in an age of intelligent machines?
Review
Economic Development
Arriving at Collective Power
In The Common Good Economy, Mariana Mazzucato is clear-eyed on where we need to go, but the next step is understanding the power structures that prevent us from getting there.
Health
How to Build Digital Health Platforms in Emerging Markets
In developing economies, the digital health platforms that actually work are not imported. They are built from scratch by the communities they serve.
Organizational Development
Designing Organizations for Neurodiversity
Research shows that neurodivergent employees display tendencies that can boost organizational performance—but too many organizations are not designed to incorporate their unique skill sets.
Excerpt
Government
Reform as Process, Not Project
An excerpt from Reform as Process on reforming government bureaucracy
Nonprofits & NGOs
AI Industry Philanthropy and Nonprofit Independence
AI companies are offering nonprofits free services and staff. Is the deal too good to be true?
Philanthropy & Funding
Capacity Building Needs an Evidence Standard
Funders should measure capacity building by what changes, not just what grantees like.
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Nonprofits & NGOs
Emergency Housing
Airbnb.org, the nonprofit arm of the homestay-platform company, is providing short-term homes to families in crisis, first responders, and medical patients worldwide.
Impact Investing
The Impact Portfolio That Beat the Market
I had a mandate to create an investment portfolio wholly devoted to impact that would not sacrifice returns. After a decade, it outperformed its benchmarks of traditional market indexes and demonstrated that socially positive investments are long-term value investments.
Nonprofits & NGOs
How AI Can Strengthen Human Connection, Not Replace It
Nonprofits balancing automation with empathy should focus on supporting team members providing care so they can be more present with people seeking help.
Scaling
Scale Right, Not Cheap and Easy
Social innovation means building a road to the future that doesn't yet exist, without lowering standards.
Review
Advocacy
Stopping the Detention Machine
John Washington’s How to Close a Camp explores the contemporary growth of immigrant detainment facilities under the Trump administration but argues that entrenched political failures are what makes them possible and what must be addressed.
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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
Scale Is a Myth! Embrace the Long Defeat!
Why the ghost of Paul Farmer wants you scaring the horses at Skoll
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.
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The Gyms on the Corners
Recognition, distortion, and the organizing infrastructure behind Minnesota's response to Operation Metro Surge.