Philanthropy & Funding
Capacity Building Needs an Evidence Standard
Funders should measure capacity building by what changes, not just what grantees like.
Tag: Grantmaking
Philanthropy & Funding
Billionaires Can Build by Supporting Dedicated Changemakers
A response to SSIR’s Summer 2026 cover essay.
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.
Nonprofits & NGOs
Grant Writing Is Infrastructure
Grant writing is the bridge between vision and resources. Until funders invest in it, grassroots organizations will remain underfunded.
Philanthropy & Funding
What Else Can We Do? The Thirteen Intentions of Philanthropy
A year of turbulence has exposed the dangers of philanthropic monocultures and upended assumptions about impact, effectiveness, and scale. Embracing the varied intentions that motivate people to give offers a more resilient, pluralistic path forward.
Measurement & Evaluation
Measuring More and Learning Less
How an excessive focus on methods has distracted attention from the more fundamental challenge of building rigor and learning overall.
Philanthropy & Funding
Meeting the Moments After This One
Philanthropy's role in Minneapolis must be to build for after the current crisis passes.
Foundations
Keeping Score on Sustainable Grantmaking
How we developed a new benchmark to shift philanthropic norms
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.
Philanthropy & Funding
Philanthropy’s Sputnik Moment
A new toolkit to reinforce and reinvent American research science in a time of crisis.