This week, I read an article in the September issue of the Harvard Business Review with the retread title of Audacious Philanthropy. Written by consultants from a national consulting firm that makes money assisting philanthropic foundations with “big bets,” the article opens with the bold assertion that for philanthropists today, “steady, linear progress isn’t enough; they demand disruptive, catalytic, systemic change—and in short order.” The article inflates the role philanthropy in fifteen social movements over the last three decades and advocates that philanthropy needs to take more “moonshots.”

We are at the front edge of an unprecedented challenge to the social contract that our government has with the people of this country. Nonprofits are planning and bracing for challenging times ahead and need philanthropic partners, not philanthropy-driven “moonshots” to solve big social problems. Bluntly, moonshots are a distraction. At this moment in time, philanthropy leadership needs to stay closer to the earth.

 

Read the source article at facilitationprocess.com