Over the past few years, when people have asked me about Bridgespan’s strategy as it relates to philanthropy and slow philanthropy, I invariably conclude with some version of: “When you step back, the meta-question we are always grappling with is: how do you help and motivate philanthropists to give more?” When my conversation partner inevitably follows up with, “What is the answer?”, I offer a word salad sprinkled with (I hope) a few interesting observations, and end by saying, “I’m humbled by how hard it is to change giving patterns in philanthropy.”

"While there has been some encouraging progress, I am still humbled by how little we understand about what it will take to realize more giving, even among people committed to giving away a large share of their wealth."

What makes this question difficult is that philanthropy is deeply personal and voluntary. The old saw that “if you know one foundation, you know one foundation” applies even more to ultra-wealthy individuals. Personal beliefs, values, faith traditions, cultural identities, family dynamics, as well as the structure and liquidity of a person’s wealth, each can affect whether, how, and how much a person gives. While these factors provide important context, they are difficult to influence directly and are not the primary focus of this essay. Instead, I focus here on understanding the assumptions, norms, structures, and initiatives that shape a person’s philanthropy and that may be amenable to change in ways that unlock greater giving.

This topic has grown in importance as the wealth of this small group has soared and as questions intensify about how society's most important opportunities and challenges will be addressed. Recent shifts in government funding flows have only heightened the stakes to find solutions to the issue of slow philanthropy.

Slow Philanthropy: Unlocking Greater Giving

Philanthropy has been a focus for The Bridgespan Group since our founding 25 years ago as a nonprofit organization (half of Bridgespan’s client work is with nonprofits and half with funders). For our first 15 years, those efforts centered largely on how to "give smart," as my co-founder Tom Tierney put it in the title of his 2011 book with Joel Fleishman. Over the past decade, another crucial question has emerged: how to unlock "greater giving" among the ultra-wealthy. (In 2018, we captured our thinking on this question in Four Pathways to Greater Giving.)

Read the full article about slow philanthropy by Jeffrey L. Bradach at The Bridgespan Group.