"I believe schools have oriented young people to almost a democratic cosplay: we know how to make signs; we know to protest what we don’t like. But it is very different from the problem-solving that previous generations were prepared to undertake."

This fits into the United States not making much of anything now. It's become all about using money to double itself endlessly. The very concept of value is archaic.

"Today’s billionaire philanthropists operate in a different mode. Rather than creating new institutions, they overwhelmingly donate to existing ones, including those built by the Gilded Age philanthropists more than a century ago."

A peculiar irony sits at the heart of modern philanthropy: The richest generation in history, commanding more wealth than the pharaohs, Medicis, and Carnegies combined, has proven surprisingly unwilling to convert that wealth into new, durable civic institutions. Our new cover story asks why...

Reminds me of this essay. Not only are shortcuts doomed to fail, as they don't address the roots of the issues, but we waste precious resources which could be used to tackle complex social issues. ssir.org/articles/ent...

If an investment is making something happen that otherwise would not—for example, funding new climate technology or building social housing where the market has failed—it is less likely to have a ready-made, liquid market. And therein lies the problem...

What is education for? What kind of citizen should education aim to cultivate? In a moment when curricula are contested and civic life is shot through with conflict, @dsallentess.bsky.social calls for a rethinking of the role education plays in our democracy:

Compliance as Resistance, publishing today in the Stanford Social Innovation Review @ssir.org. Thanks to Latitude Global and SSIR for initiating this series on nonprofit and philanthropic compliance, and to Jenifer Morgan for great editing. ssir.org/articles/ent...

Catch up on the conversation: Kevin Starr responds to what he calls the "predictable backlash [against scale at SSIR], ranging from the plaintive 'Does Everything in the Social Sector Have to Scale?' to the unhinged 'Scale is a Myth! Embrace the Long Defeat!'" ssir.org/articles/ent...

For decades, most organizations treated major giving as a specialty function: important but separate from the broader fundraising operation. But that logic no longer holds. In a new excerpt from "A Better Way to Fundraise," Derric Bakker explains why.

Continuing this forum on the purpose of public education: Kim Smith, CEO of LearnerStudio, writes about choice, agency, and balancing justice with freedom. "A new social contract is not only a set of promises from the system to families. It is also a set of obligations that flow the other way."

NEW from our forthcoming summer issue: Nimesh Ghimire profiles Ashesi University in Ghana. Beginning in 2002 with a class of 30 Ghanaian students, the school now enrolls over 1,800 students from more than 30 nations across Africa.

NEW from our forthcoming summer issue: Nimesh Ghimire profiles Ashesi University in Ghana. Beginning in 2002 with a class of 30 Ghanaian students, the school now enrolls over 1,800 students from more than 30 nations across Africa.

This piece from @ssir.org challenges funders to rethink how they approach risk, embrace flexibility, and act with courage to support those on the front lines. https://bit.ly/3R4fq9D

"Today, teachers are expected to guide students through complex, interdisciplinary challenges; to help them use technology and AI ethically and creatively; and to cultivate curiosity, compassion, and critical thinking. But the systems around them haven’t evolved to match those expectations."

Thanks to @ssir.org for publishing an excerpt from BEYOND BELIEF: the story of how evidence came to shape policy in Washington, inspiring "the most evidence-based administration in history.” A contrast to today. ssir.org/books/excerp... @jonbaronformd.bsky.social @princetonupress.bsky.social

In an excerpt from her new book, "Beyond Belief," @helenpearson.bsky.social tells the story of how evidence-based policy gained a foothold in Washington, and how a small nonprofit group influenced "the most evidence-based administration in history.”

In a time of widespread change, what is public education for, and how can it evolve to meet its promise? In a new SSIR series, authors agree that public education needs to transform, but there is far less agreement on what transformation looks like.

Join @ssir.org today at 10am PT ⤵️

Tomorrow, SSIR speaks w/ Mark Dobosz about his article, “Beyond the Mega-Gift.” Sign up to join us live tomorrow Apr 29 at 10am PT: stanford.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Nonprofits Need Enterprise Capital to Succeed @ssir.org

The traditional approach to due diligence, which stems from a widespread corporate mindset, perceives risk primarily as a threat that funders should identify and mitigate, if not avoid. What if funders viewed due diligence principally as an opportunity to develop deeper relationships with grantees?

What will it take to reverse the recent increasing concentration of charitable giving? SSIR’s David Johnson speaks w/ Mark Dobosz about his SSIR feature, “Beyond the Mega-Gift.” Wednesday, April 29 Register here: stanford.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Growth ≠ Scale. That distinction, Kevin Starr argues in Stanford Social Innovation Review, is what separates the organizations that dent big problems from the ones that don't. Scale ideas, not organizations. https://ssir.org/articles/entry/scale-really-matters #Philanthropy #ImpactInvesting

What will it take to reverse the recent increasing concentration of charitable giving? SSIR’s David Johnson speaks w/ Mark Dobosz about his SSIR feature, “Beyond the Mega-Gift.” Wednesday, April 29 Register here: stanford.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

"Everybody’s getting ready for the annual social sector lollapalooza in Oxford, and there have never been so many sessions with the word “scale” in the title..." ssir.org/articles/ent...

Important: When Compliance Aims to Silence: A look at the motivations behind and impact of a new law limiting nonprofit fundraising in Ecuador, and how civil society organizations are coming together to reclaim their agency. ssir.org/articles/ent... - Tania Dávila Paredes, @ssir.org

"Growth and scale are not the same thing. Confusing the two comes at a cost—you only have so much bandwidth, and they require different activities and skillsets. Growth and scale can even be in opposition, especially when working with governments."

What comes after a "big bet" grant? With the acceleration of big bet philanthropy in the past decade, the sector now has a rich dataset of “sunsets” to learn from.

What Large, Unrestricted Gifts Do for Nonprofit Leaders: ssir.org/articles/ent...

I simultaneously believe that we need more rigorous, credible evaluations of social policy AND that some current evaluation systems would be better transformed into good monitoring. I just assigned my students my favorite reading on this topic. ssir.org/articles/ent...

What does it take for a nonprofit to grow without external support? The Pay-It-Forward Threshold ~ @ssir.org

"They say you don’t come to Skoll to scare the horses. But Paul Farmer, for all his grace and gentleness, loved to grab the gate and give it a good hard shake."

“But as geopolitical instability grows, inequality deepens, and social systems fracture in new ways—as the world, in short, ceases to behave like a scalable system—it is time to ask the uncomfortable question: Must all social innovation be designed to scale?” ssir.org/articles/ent...

Philanthropy has the potential to play a much greater role in resourcing Native communities for land rematriation. Yet it's essential to understand the journey through rematriation is as delicate and complex as it is powerful and restorative.

Does Everything in the Social Sector Need to Scale, asks @ssir.org

The question, then, is what do we stand to lose if scale thinking becomes the predominant lens of looking at social change? ssir.org/articles/ent...

Excellent article by @davidcarel.bsky.social & @ssir.org on how we need to approach the new paradigm of airborne diseases. #PublicHealth #Healthcare #Covid #CovidIsAirborne #CovidIsNoteOver #LongCovid #Measles #Flu @taniaspencer.bsky.social @n95anaesthetist.bsky.social ssir.org/articles/ent...

Why learning how to disagree well is important to professional development, and four areas where organizational leaders and staff can start. ssir.org/articles/ent...

Beginning soon! Registration link in thread 👇

"COVID-19 has caused more than 27 million deaths globally, tuberculosis causes 1.6 million deaths every year, and influenza kills 700,000 annually. We now know that these and many other respiratory infections show considerable airborne transmission." ssir.org/articles/ent...

Found this great piece suggesting 3 practical ways to undergo ethical and socially responsible research in the Global South. Have a look! ssir.org/articles/ent...

Live today at 11am PT / 2pm ET: Join our conversation w/ Ariel Simon about his article, “What Else Can We Do? The Thirteen Intentions of Philanthropy”

Read our Managing Director of External Affairs, Xanthe Scharff's, review of Stephanie Limoncelli's book Advocacy, Inc. in @ssir.org

Why learning how to disagree well is important to professional development, and four areas where organizational leaders and staff can start. ssir.org/articles/ent...

Are effectiveness, impact, and scale the only things philanthropists should care about? SSIR will speak w/ Ariel Simon about his new SSIR article, “What Else Can We Do? The Thirteen Intentions of Philanthropy” in a live, free-to-attend conversation, on March 23: stanford.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

"For too long, charitable support for kids has been disconnected from systemic change, being primarily geared, instead, toward direct service programs." Ted Lempert of Children Now argues that real systemic change requires advocacy groups to look to government: ssir.org/articles/ent...

The fact that just 3 percent of donors now provide 78 percent of all charitable dollars represents an existential threat to social innovation. Community-based organizations depend on modest local contributions not simply for revenue but for validation, stakeholder investment, and social capital.

🔥 Kyle Kutuchief & Alexa Bush in @ssir.org on @civiccommonsus.bsky.social's 10 yrs in public space & democracy — "these investments can turn the tide, in ways that have implications for future philanthropic efforts to promote democratic principles across diverse communities." tinyurl.com/3x7kk7d3

Across millennia, human intelligence has evolved not simply through logic or invention, but through connection. Our ancestors survived not because they computed faster, but because they cooperated better.