Funder-owned strategies often reinforce donor-grantee power imbalances and focus on short-term measurable gains, thereby limiting philanthropic impact. Global and systemic challenges can be addressed more effectively with strategies that are collectively owned. | Open-access to this article made possible by Dalberg Catalyst.
The traditional model of community development finance is limited by market conservatism and a focus on scale, rather than local control. We need a new paradigm that prioritizes impact over scale, emphasizes flexible and creative financing strategies, and empowers community voice. | Open access to this article is made possible by The Center for Community Investment, a sponsored project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.
Conventional needs-based development policies can be harmful to informal businesses. Instead, development professionals must embrace an asset-based approach, identifying how existing collective solutions foster business resilience. | Open-access to this article made possible by the Concordia University Research Chair in Resilience and Institutions, John Molson School of Business, Concordia University.
A 20-year campaign to address America’s high school dropout crisis produced unprecedented gains in graduation rates nationwide. Can lessons from this campaign help the nation cross this elusive threshold and inspire action on other social issues? | Open access to this article is made possible by Future Pathways/OAP, a sponsored project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.
Neoliberalism has set the agenda for US public education for decades, championing values of individual choice, standards, and competition—with disappointing results. Amid rising civic discord, is there a different vision for public education that would better prepare young people to become citizens and improve our democratic health? | Open access to this article is made possible by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
Funders are calling for more program evaluation, but nonprofits are often collecting dubious data, at great cost to themselves and ultimately to the people they serve.
Large-scale social change requires broad cross-sector coordination, not the isolated intervention of individual organizations.
With an understanding of these 10 funding models, nonprofit leaders can use the for-profit world's valuable practice of engaging in succinct and clear conversations about long-term financial strategy.
Social entrepreneurship is attracting growing amounts of talent, money, and attention, but along with its increasing popularity has come less certainty about what exactly a social entrepreneur is and does.
By working closely with the clients and consumers, design thinking allows high-impact solutions to social problems to bubble up from below rather than being imposed from the top.
