Philanthropic giving is a powerful force. Nonprofit organizations are critical change agents in a world where a broad range of issues, from poverty to pollution, call out for positive change. In a largely market-driven world, it can be easy to equate this reliance on philanthropic support as a fundamental weakness of the nonprofit sector.

Nonprofits occupy an important and distinct arena in our world, representing the third sector alongside business and government. This third sector actively and strategically fills gaps, addresses needs, and deploys approaches that are not available to the other two sectors, and that simultaneously check and balance those sectors’ negative impacts, while also expanding the reach of their positive impacts. Specifically, nonprofits can – and are often critically needed to – operate where there isn’t a market solution for a problem, or where the political process may be too slow or controversial to yield government funding in time or ever.

We believe that all three sectors are critical actors, and we also see that there is often a misunderstanding of the power and strategic opportunity of providing support and working in partnership with the nonprofit sector to create a healthy, equitable, thriving planet.

Read the full article by Kate Williams on the Impakter