Profiles of Big Bets in Philanthropy Tackling Complex Issues

Stanford Social Innovation Review Feb 22, 2019
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Profiles of Big Bets in Philanthropy Tackling Climate Change Giving Compass

Giving Compass’ Take:

• Climate and Land Use Alliance’s (CLUA) is an example of how collaborative philanthropic investment can tackle a complex issue. In this post, The Bridgespan Group explains other big bets in philanthropy that are doing the same. 

• How can more donors get involved in big bets in philanthropy through collective impact? 

• Jean Case explains the value of big bets in philanthropy. 

Climate change is among the most daunting social problems for philanthropists to address. The issue is global in scale, involves a very large number of stakeholders and regulatory environments, and must take into account the continually evolving scientific understanding of how to slow climate change and help communities and countries adapt to it. Even the biggest big bets from individual funders may seem insufficient to make a dent in the problem.

Even the biggest big bets from individual funders may seem insufficient to make a dent in the problem.

Since 2010, the Climate and Land Use Alliance’s (CLUA) five main funders (Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, ClimateWorks Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and The David & Lucile Packard Foundation) have committed more than a half a billion dollars to a set of common strategies, with $211 million of that total coming in 2018. 

Since you are interested in Impact Philanthropy, have you read these selections from Giving Compass related to impact giving and Impact Philanthropy?

  • This article is deemed a must-read by one or more of our expert collaborators.
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    Cost-Benefit Analysis Needed to Improve Refugee Integration Programming

    Giving Compass' Take: • The Migration Policy Institute explains the need for cost-benefit analyses to improve refugee integration programming.  • How can philanthropy support the research needed to prove program impact? What are the barriers to scaling proven programs?  • Read about philanthropic strategies to support refugees and asylum seekers.  Across Western Europe, governments have stepped up their investments in programs that aim to help recently arrived refugees find work and settle into their new communities. But it is often unclear what types of programs yield the best results. It may take years or even generations for the full effects of integration initiatives to be felt, yet the limited evaluations that do exist generally focus on a more narrow set of short-term, economic outcomes (such as employment rates). As a result, “decision-making in integration policy is often based on political pressure, the desire to ‘do something,’ or a change of administration,” the authors of this report conclude. Considerably more robust evidence is needed if policymakers are to navigate question such as: Is it better for newcomers to enter work quickly or to first spend time and money developing skills valued in local labor markets? The report proposes a new framework for thinking about and making smart decisions about integration programming. It outlines how policymakers can use cost-benefit analysis, a tool often employed by economists, to calculate the broader social value of labor-market integration investments. This type of analysis has proven valuable in other fields—such as health, criminal justice, and education—where the effects of investments unfold over a similarly long timeframe. And in the integration arena, it offers ways to look beyond financial benefits to explore how programs may affect, for example, the second generation as parents build skills and find higher-paid work, which down the road may improve their children’s educational outcomes and lifetime earnings.

Outside of their CLUA work, these funders pursue climate action with different strategies.But in CLUA, the funders are taking advantage of an opportunity to come together around a shared belief in land use as a climate change mitigation strategy.

 

Among its results to date, CLUA has been able to convince some of the world’s largest paper- and pulp-manufacturing companies to make zero-deforestation commitments.

CLUA demonstrates how collaborative philanthropy can bring together funders with different strategies but a common overall goal in order to focus large investments on a complex issue. Here are some other examples of big bets in philanthropy tackling larger problems:

  • Big Bet to the Bail Project (total grant size not public)
  • $39 Million to Opportunity Insights
  • $27 Million to the Susan G. Komen African-American Health Equity Initiative
  • $50 Million to TheDream.US

Read the full article about profile of big bets by The Bridgespan Group at Stanford Social Innovation Review.

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