At the request of the W.K. Kellogg and David and Lucile Packard foundations, much of our inquiry in this initiative was aimed at understanding what it would take to transform philanthropy in the next generation—not just at the practice level, but also in terms of the culture, norms, and rules that govern the field as a whole.
After much experimentation with many audiences, we decided upon the approach we took in creating Looking Out for the Future. This section shares some of the ideas that informed this decision, along with other resources you may want to consult if you are engaged in trying to cultivate change in philanthropy.
- Our working paper provides an overview of our main ideas and carries the same title as this section, Cultivating Change in Philanthropy. It examines the barriers that make philanthropy difficult to change, and explores how those hurdles might be overcome to create a more diverse, integrated, and effective system of giving in the U.S., and ultimately around the world. This version is our third attempt to think through a set of issues that many others before us have also sought to understand. But it is the first we have released publicly. Nevertheless, it is still a work in progress—and therefore an invitation to conversation.
- The New Brokers profiled in the US Philanthropy Today section will play a key role in cultivating change in philanthropy during the next generation. These four stories cover a handful of hundreds of actors now playing this role. Are you one? Should you become one?
- The single article that influenced our thinking most powerfully during the course of this project was probably “Places to Intervene in a System" by the late Donella Meadows. Look for it in the winter 1997 part of the archive of Whole Earth magazine linked here. We recommend it to anyone who is trying to think about change—whether in philanthropy or any other domain. Meadows, a pioneering environmental scientist, draws upon a lifetime of thinking about systems to share the nine leverage points of intervention, in ascending order of their importance. This article provoked many of the questions that this project has explored, and continues to explore.
- Many of the most forward-thinking people in the philanthropy field are now considering whether it’s possible to create a more rational marketplace for funding nonprofits and social change. As Mario Morino and Bill Shore argue in a recent report on engaged philanthropy, “The lack of capital and the means to distribute it effectively to build strong and healthy organizations are what keep most subsectors of the nonprofit field from developing stable, sustainable organizations." Since we anticipate much more activity in this domain in the coming years, we provide here a challenge for those doing this work. Andrew Blau reflects on Why Donors Are Not Investors, and suggests a better way to understand philanthropy in the broader non-commercial marketplace.
- Many others are thinking about how to cultivate change in philanthropy. Here are some key Resources to consult if you are, too.
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