Posted: 03 Mar. 2023 4 min. read

New Series on What’s Next for Philanthropy in Stanford Social Innovation Review

By Gabriel Kasper, Managing Director, Justin Marcoux, Senior Manager, and Jennifer Holk, Senior Manager.
Deloitte Development LLC.

The Monitor Institute just launched a new series in the Stanford Social Innovation Review. Check out the initial piece here.

In 2020, the Monitor Institute by Deloitte—Deloitte’s social impact strategy consulting unit—launched the What’s Next for Philanthropy in the 2020s initiative to help funders reflect on the future of the field. The project’s final report, Seeing Philanthropy in a New Light, identified seven “big shifts” now reshaping the role and context for philanthropy, and highlighted four emerging “edges” of practice that have outsized potential to change the field in the next decade.

Over the course of the work, the Institute team interviewed more than 200 philanthropy executives, professionals, donors, board members, experts, and grantees to develop a broad mosaic of perspectives about where the field might be headed.

But mosaics are built from many individual tiles. And there’s no replacing the unique viewpoints and insights of the talented individuals who are tackling our most pressing problems and working to help our communities thrive. So to add additional color to that report, the team recently launched an in-depth article series in the Stanford Social Innovation Review to amplify the perspectives of five important leaders in the field. We asked them a simple question: What’s next for philanthropy? Their answers are hopeful, honest, and acutely human.

We’re excited that the initial research has spurred so much conversation, and to release these perspectives in the coming weeks. Each has their unique and poignant take on what the future may hold. For Carmen Rojas, president and CEO of the Marguerite Casey Foundation, the challenges of the last few years have given funders an opportunity to rethink their role in creating a more equitable and just society. Stephanie Fuerstner Gillis and Jeff and Tricia Raikes of the Raikes Foundation highlight the many reasons for optimism—and caution—in the shifts that are already taking place. Alandra Washington of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation considers how philanthropists can make structural and substantive reforms in pursuit of racial equity. And Community Foundations of Canada President Andrew Chunilall looks back to Andrew Carnegie to explore how a return to the foundational purpose of philanthropy can help us better take on the multiple, overlapping crises we now face. Finally, Tulaine Montgomery of New Profit takes additional inspiration from the past, returning to the definitional construct of philanthropy as the love of humankind and pondering how giving truly done through that lens might look meaningfully different over the coming decade.

To find out about what everyone’s talking about… and to learn more about what might be next for philanthropy, visit www.futureofphilanthropy.org or contact us at monitorinstitute@deloitte.com.

Monitor Institute by Deloitte

Monitor Institute by Deloitte's multidisciplinary team brings a diverse blend of cross-sector experience, and a balance of analytic capability with sensitivity to the workings of human systems.