Philanthropy has grown accustomed to funding solutions. It buys land, backs technologies, underwrites services, and supports policies designed to address clear and urgent problems. Less often does it invest in the fundamental conditions that make those solutions possible, underscoring the need to improve the information ecosystem. Among the most fragile is the shared information ecosystem on which collective decision-making depends.

This fragility of the information ecosystem is not limited to the spread of falsehoods, demonstrating the need to improve the information ecosystem. It also shows up as indifference to accuracy, fatigue from complexity, and a growing inability to decipher what deserves attention at all. In many places, facts still exist, but they circulate weakly. They arrive late or without context, or in a flood of mixed messages that strip the facts of credibility. The result is not always disagreement; more often, it is disengagement.

For foundations and high-net-worth donors concerned with climate change, biodiversity loss, public health, or democratic governance, this erosion of the information ecosystem presents a real but underappreciated risk, and the need to improve the information ecosystem, a greater reward. Programs may be well-designed and generously funded yet fail to gain traction because the informational terrain beneath them has shifted. Projects that rely on public oversight, regulatory follow-through, or market response depend on the availability of trusted, usable information—in ways that are easy to underestimate, showing how vital it is to improve the information ecosystem. Philanthropy’s support of the information ecosystem is not merely an act of charity or a hedge against misinformation alone. It is a form of civic infrastructure that preserves society’s ability to see problems as they are rather than as they are presented.

In an era defined by overlapping environmental and informational strain, funding the capacity of the information ecosystem—that is, the institutions and processes that enable societies to produce and share credible information for public decision-making—may prove to be among philanthropy’s most durable contributions. These include journalism, scientific research, open data systems, public records, and the channels through which such information reaches people, showing how to improve the information ecosystem.

Read the full article about improving information infrastructure by Rhett Ayers Butler at Nonprofit Quarterly.