Measurement & Evaluation
Philanthropy’s Most Important Metric
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.
Technology
A Path Through AI Overwhelm
Many social impact leaders feel pressure to engage with AI but are overwhelmed and lack a clear starting point. Four fundamental questions can help frame early conversations, grounding AI strategy in purpose, organizational capacity, and values.
Education
Her Library, Their Future
An Indian state's initiative to establish women-run community libraries is giving rural students—especially girls—a safe space to study and access career guidance.
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Education
How Can Schools Best Serve the Common Good?
A conversation with two nationally renowned school superintendents about the biggest challenges they face.
Nonprofits & NGOs
Compliance as Resistance
Philanthropic, nonprofit, and civil society organizations that face highly restrictive state policies can leverage compliance to pursue their goals as legalized entities, making them harder to suppress.
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
Scale Is a Myth! Embrace the Long Defeat!
Why the ghost of Paul Farmer wants you scaring the horses at Skoll
Scaling
Scale Really Matters
The problems are big, the time is short, and the resources are limited.
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Technology
SSIR Online, Summer 2026 Issue
What SSIR readers are saying about articles on artificial intelligence, charitable giving, and navigating organizational disagreement.
Social Services
Fun and Games
Inter-nursing home games in France happen regularly across the country thanks in part to financial support from the National Solidarity Fund for Autonomy, an arm of the country’s social-security system.
Philanthropy & Funding
Building to Last
We all—editors, writers, and readers alike—are not just students or observers of the world around us but builders of its future.
Impact Investing
Liquidity Is the Missing Elixir in Impact Investing
Impact strategies must reckon with the problem that capital is frequently trapped in highly illiquid investments with no prospect of exit.
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Education and Its Public Purposes
How schools can support both individual and collective thriving in our democracy.
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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.
Nonprofits & NGOs
How Will Your Nonprofit Survive?
In the face of current funding uncertainty, US nonprofits must innovate to sustain their missions.
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.
Economic Development
When USAID Shut Down, Its Lessons Nearly Vanished. AI Helped Recover Them
A final sweep of 60 years of evidence reveals durable truths about how development succeeds and fails.