How can the philanthropic sector help development philanthropy rebuild for a leaner, more accountable era?

In a moment of slashed budgets, the temptation will be to ask private giving to plug the holes left behind by vanishing public funds or to serve as an emergency patch for programs that suddenly find themselves unsupported. That instinct is understandable, but it misunderstands both the design and the promise of philanthropic capital. Philanthropy was never meant to be a sandbag stacked against fiscal floods. Instead, it must be the spark that lights entirely new fires. It is exactly this catalyzing role that we must double down on today.

In the past, nonprofits often treated their donors as patrons whose generosity had to be courted rather than tested. That mindset kept organizations passive; philanthropic charity was seen as an optional kindness for which we could be grateful, but without deeper involvement and engagement that characterizes a true partnership. The coming era demands an entirely different posture, in which philanthropic funding for development philanthropy is seen as risk capital deployed in service of measurable public value.

When funders and field partners treat philanthropy as partnership, rather than patronage, the entire relationship shifts towards shared accountability, based on mutual respect and trust. In the older model, a nonprofit wooed a donor, accepted the cheque, and sent a year-end update (that may not have provided KPIs, metrics, course correction, or progress on strategic goals of the organization). Etiquette dulled ambition: gifts framed as discretionary kindness did not require further inquiry (nor did organizations necessarily feel obligated for additional detail).

In the future we must build towards, philanthropic capital for development philanthropy should behave like purpose-driven risk equity: money invested to surface what works, prove it quickly, and pave the way for larger, longer-term financing. For receivers, this requires a muscular stance that treats data not as a bureaucratic burden but as the passport to serious funding. Unit costs, counterfactuals, time-bound targets, and independent validations must become standard for every grant report.

Read the full article about development philanthropy by Karen Kardos and T. Alexander Puutio at Stanford Social Innovation Review.