In 2020, Moody and Martin observed: “Go to any philanthropy conference today and one of the keynote speakers is likely to be the author of a book about ‘the elite charade of changing the world’ (Giridharadas, 2019), ‘why philanthropy is failing democracy’ (Reich, 2018), or the need to ‘decolonize’ and ‘heal’ (Villanueva, 2018) a philanthropic sector gone awry.” This still feels true today in terms of how the philanthropic landscape is evolving.

Conversely, and more hopefully, leaders like Dimple Abichandani are calling for a “new era of philanthropy” (2025) that reimagines how wealth can be mobilized for justice — an era grounded in shared power, transparency, and participation. This year, we trace how successive trends have captured the evolution of that vision, mapping an emerging landscape defined by collective practices, digital tools, and a search for connection that is reshaping philanthropy.

Collective Practices: Strength in Numbers

Early Trends reports from the Johnson Center captured the stirrings of this transformation. In the first edition, Jason Franklin described a worldwide movement in which small contributions could be aggregated into significant collective impact (2017a, 2017b). The following year, he explored how giving circles build both community and capacity by pooling resources and decision-making (Franklin, 2018).

By 2025, two essays confirmed that what began as a niche practice had become a durable feature of the philanthropic landscape (Layton; Couturier & Martin). In the wider field of philanthropy, this story is beautifully rendered by two untiring advocates for giving circles, Sara Lomelin’s 2022 TED Talk, “Your Invitation to Disrupt Philanthropy,” and Hali Lee’s 2025 book, The Big We: How Giving Circles Unlock Generosity, Strengthen Community, and Make Change.

Research shows that collective giving challenges traditional hierarchies by dispersing decision-making power (Loson-Ceballos & Layton, 2024). It builds social capital as people deliberate and act together. As Layton argued in 2021, these spaces deepen belonging and civic engagement.

“[C]ollective giving challenges traditional hierarchies by dispersing decision-making power. It builds social capital as people deliberate and act together.”

These dynamics are especially visible across communities of color, where collective traditions long predate current models. Two Trends essays in particular have sought to highlight this work — “Donors of Color Are Mobilizing for Their Communities” (Spicer, 2022) and “AAPI Communities Are Leading an Upswell in Philanthropy” (Abalo & Sharp Eizinger, 2024) — illustrating how culturally rooted philanthropy is expanding who participates and what gets resourced. Taken together, these developments demonstrate how the philanthropic landscape is evolving and suggest that collective philanthropy is now a mainstream force in the evolving landscape of generosity.

Read the full article about collective giving by Michael Layton, with research contributions from Crisol Beliz at Dorothy A. Johnson Center.