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.
Solutions - Articles
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.
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How Can Schools Best Serve the Common Good?
A conversation with two nationally renowned school superintendents about the biggest challenges they face, the relationship between education and democracy, and the tension between innovation and equity.
SSIR Online, Summer 2026 Issue
What SSIR readers are saying about articles on artificial intelligence, charitable giving, and navigating organizational disagreement.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Excerpt
Major Giving Must Be Central
An excerpt from A Better Way to Fundraise on making major giving the operating system for fundraising