Imagine the Possibilities by Peter Brach
I am a fund manager and Founder of Propel Philanthropy. I bring funders together from large to small. We discuss big, broad, bold approaches to achieve transformative change. You will not find shovel-ready solutions here. You will find possibilities to springboard fresh, additional ideas. The best of these can be grounded in the mill of collective strategic thinking and refined into transformative action. Some may ask if these possibilities are realistic. Considering that over $1 billion goes toward charity every day, the answer is yes. We have more than enough financial and intellectual resources to accomplish these possibilities. The question should rather be: Are we willing to work together to accomplish solutions that are far too big, broad, and bold to fit neatly into our silos and not possible for us to achieve alone?
Possibility 1: Fuel Nonprofits to Achieve Maximum Good
Organizations such as the National Council of Nonprofits, TechSoup, and Resource Alliance collectively reach over 1.3 million nonprofits and civil society organizations in 236 countries worldwide. How can we take advantage of this enormous reach? For one, we could partner with these organizations to create a meta platform with the bold vision of improving the performance of one million nonprofits by 2030. Improving the capacity of the nonprofit and civil society sectors is critical to addressing not just one or a few but many problems we now face.
Possibility 2: Double the Productivity of Fundraising Organizations
GivingTuessday, GoFundMe, and others raise billions of dollars annually. What if we changed course and invested heavily to bring our most promising global giving accelerators to full throttle and collectively agreed to double or triple available charitable capital by the end of the decade?
Possibility 3: Double Human Resources Focused on Achieving Social Impact
For example, VolunteerMatch has connected 13 million volunteers to nonprofits since its inception. Points of Light volunteer recruitment efforts are valued at $482 million annually. What might our future look like if we worked closely with such organizations and set our minds to double or triple human resource capacity by 2030? Achieving such far-reaching objectives would require an exceptional display of funding, collaboration, and cooperation, but it is doable.
Possibility 4: Increase the Social Impact Investment Market to 2.2 Trillion Dollars
The social impact market currently sits at $1.164 trillion, occupying approximately 2% of the global market. Can we set the goal of doubling these numbers to 2.2 trillion by the end of the decade?
Possibility 5: Accelerate the Field of Social Innovation
Despite commendable efforts from organizations, including Ashoka, Levers for Change and Catalyst 2030, the field of social innovation reflects the days of the “Wild West.” We are not sufficiently resourced or organized to capture the best innovations and scale them. We are mostly focused on what we can accomplish in silos, not how to move the field forward. This problem can change, and you could be the person who ensures that happens!
Possibility 6: Engage the General Public in Philanthropy
Millions of people in the U.S. alone have no education on how to fund nonprofits or CSOs more efficiently, effectively, equitably, and ethically. They don’t know what it means to give grants with a lens on equity or gender. They’ve never heard about nonprofit capacity building, trust-based philanthropy, supporting localized aid, or how to partner with communities, and they should! Imagine what our future could look like if we invested in large-scale donor education to build a well-informed social sector?
Possibility 7: Democratize Philanthropy through Giving Circles
Giving Circles have raised nearly $1.3 billion, exposing many people to valuable group learning and relationship-building opportunities. They democratize philanthropy by providing donors with agency. Why not set the goal to unlock 10 billion dollars through this vehicle by 2030?
Possibility 8: Create an eHarmony for Collaboration
The need for identifying social impact-related collaboration opportunities across all sectors is quite considerable. Imagine an eHarmony-type platform that intakes an in-depth organizational profile and outputs highly feasible partners. Imagine this platform serving millions of people in the social sector ever year. While this would not replace face-to-face trust-building experiences, we should consider the potential of ethical simulations through virtual reality combined with AI-powered state-of-the-art matchmaking technologies.
Possibility 9: Build More Partnerships between Philanthropy and Governments Globally
Philanthropy only provides a tiny fraction of the funding governments and development agencies deliver. Philanthropy organizations, including WINGS, the SDG Philanthropy Platform, the United Philanthropy Forum, the Council on Foundations, and netFWD, have made inroads by building multi-stakeholder partnerships in different countries. What if we established 50 more strong, trusting national-level partnerships where multiple sectors worked together to improve the effectiveness of how double-digit billions of dollars are spent annually by 2030?
Possibility 10: Address Global Poverty and Inequities
We can achieve significant progress in international development by strategically supporting evidence-based research. We can realize further progress by providing operational and capacity support for promising international organizations that unlock capital, provide platforms, ease cross-border giving, create enabling environments, convene system orchestrators, or support those most proximate to problems on the ground.
Conclusion
Experience suggests that many will agree that we need to move from silos to big, broad, bold solutions. However, most grantmakers will not fund these because this is not what the do. Unfortunately, with few exceptions, this is not what any of us do. However, even a few wealthy funders with foresight could break ground, as MacKenzie Scott did, by leading us from silos to broad impact. Others can set aside discretionary funds or offer their time, talents, or ties to bring about big, broad, bold change. Momentum is building. Now is the time to expand the pie, build regenerative resources, and create thriving ecosystems to enable us to reach farther and do more than was previously possible.
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