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The latest:
Macarthur-supplement-cover_170_223_c1 Finding, Funding, and Scaling. The Stanford Social Innovation Review recently published this supplement focused on the 100&Change competition and how best to manage competitions to support the field of philanthropy with open knowledge, transparent award processes, and funder collaboration.

The best of what I’m reading these days is on Pinboard, with personal tweets over in the sidebar. The rest of this site is mostly historical.

Recent Readings in Philanthropy

The Future of Asian Philanthropy

Philanthropy in Asia is at an important crossroads. The region has enjoyed decades of strong economic growth, resulting in newly created wealth. At the same time, gaps in development and social progress continue to exist. As Asia emerges from a global pandemic and faces a looming climate crisis, it is time to rethink what society should look like and how it […]

Bill Gates Has Perfected Managerial Philanthropy

This shows a key limitation of the foundation model, and of the entire ecosystem of elite consensus and influence networks that the model operates within. It is limited to organizing power on behalf of the relatively misguided consensus priorities formed by a combination of managerial class interests and what sounds good in the press. It does not have the ab […]

Deloitte: What's Next for Philanthropy

A look ahead at emerging trends in philanthropy and charitable giving Drawing from interviews with more than 200 philanthropy executives, practitioners, donors, board members, experts, and grantees from around the world, What’s Next for Philanthropy in the 2020s explores what emerging social, economic, and political shifts may mean for the future of philanth […]

Winding down Ford fellowships at the National Academies / Ford Foundation

Ford Foundation Shuts Down Fellowship Program

Leo Szilard on "The Mark Grable Foundation"

“No,” Mark Gable said. “I believe scientific progress is too fast as it is.” “I share your feeling about this point,” I said with the fervor of conviction, “but then why not do something about the retardation of scientific progress?” “That I would very much like to do,” Mark Gable said, “but how do I go about it?” “Well,” I said, “I think that shouldn’t be v […]

THE GIVING COMMITMENT: KNOWING YOUR MOTIVATION (RPA)

Analysis-driven donors deemphasize the personal in their articulation of philanthropic goals. Instead, they seek to look objectively what the biggest needs are, or what issues can be successfully addressed with philanthropic resources. The terminology of investing or of the scientific method often frames how they define their motivations as well as their goa […]

What Really Motivates Charitable Giving?

Our new study utilizes a natural field experiment and finds that in the real world, people are motivated to give based on perceived benefits to themselves.

CAF Survey "Why We Give"

We asked over 700 of our customers: what influences them to give what could grow giving in the UK how much of their wealth should the affluent give to charity

Northern Trust on Donor Motivations

Social Stewardship. Some individuals are driven to give based on a strong sense of duty to fellow human beings and a desire for society to function fairly, sometimes referred to as “social stewardship.” Donors who see themselves as social stewards seek to support charitable causes that promote greater social stability by fostering democracy, human rights and […]

Measuring the Motives for Charitable Giving (NBER)

A variety of issues pertaining to donative behavior have been covered in the economics literature. Two of the more important ones have arisen in discussions of the motivations for giving. The first is reciprocity: do people donate because they expect something in return? The second is affinity: what factors influence whether an individual develops a feeling […]

Competency Model for Foundation Program Officers

If only.