No one could doubt that philanthropy has invested in important fights for justice and fairness. The news is filled with examples. But the sector has developed a bad habit of declaring victory at the starting line. When a city council passes a program or a governor signs an innovative policy into law, we celebrate with great fanfare. But where are we when, years later, those goals are not achieved? When implementation has been neglected? When impressive predictions have given way to a weak shadow of the prior status quo, leaving the would-be beneficiaries with only the echo of a broken promise?

On too many occasions, philanthropists have run only a third of the race, then dropped the baton, and gone home. It is time for philanthropy to invest in implementation: we need to run all the way through the tape.

Los Angeles County’s recent history is strewn with examples of headline victories that sputtered on the road to real change, from millions of dollars allocated to green energy programs that the responsible agencies left unspent to the Juvenile Justice Crime Prevention Act of California, which was created in 2000 to allocate scattered state funds to community-based organizations with proven track records, but let millions of dollars piled up unspent. Look at the eviction “moratoriums” passed by local and state governments in early 2020: though these policies were designed to provide lifelines to workers facing COVID-related job loss, and community-based organizations were backed by philanthropy to win these protections, landlords still filed evictions with the courts.

In each case, the cost of failed implementation can be measured in human lives: children jailed for missing school, families who must choose between paying utility bills, medical bills, and rent, or entire communities sickened by the polluted air they breathe.

Read the full article about focusing on policy implementation by Shane Murphy Goldsmith at Stanford Social Innovation Review.