Philanthropy and the nonprofit sector are changing. There have been signs of shifts for years, but nothing as significant as the transformation we are experiencing now. And this is good. The issues we are addressing are deep and complex. They require fundamentally new ways of thinking if we are to make real progress.

Donors are waking up to just how systemic the problems are, and that they can’t be fixed with highly restricted gifts that fit nicely into their categories of giving. Nonprofits are seeing the need to be more disciplined with their resources, and that impact can be accelerated through stronger collaboration with each other and with the systems that have struggled to serve the people they were built to support.

As a nonprofit sector, we’ve always been situated closer to the need, understanding the disparities that shape the reasons for our missions to exist and how to leverage resources to address the deepest needs in communities. But traditionally, nonprofits have not been able to be as effective as they’d envisioned because of the old philosophy of “donor knows best,” where the funder has control over how and where the work is done, by nature of the fact that they control the funding. This has trapped nonprofits into often compromising the truest pathway to achieving our missions because we have been reliant on highly restricted resources that often do not align with the work needed or the pace necessary to make a real impact.

Collectively, we can learn from the historic lack of significant progress toward achieving our missions and look differently at how we work together toward big, bold, shared goals. Our starting point for this must be self-reflective, doing the work to understand what it will take to achieve our missions and then identifying the resources and disciplines that put us on a path to impact — what needs to be central investment and what needs to be let go of. At KABOOM!, we had to get real with ourselves and recognize that in order to solve the systemic issue of playspace inequity, we needed to invest deeply in adapting our approach. We also had to let go of our fears and replace them with a bold vision for how the issue of playspace inequity could be solved. A gift from MacKenzie Scott came to us at precisely the right moment, allowing us to invest deeply into transformational change.

On the heels of Scott’s $14 million gift in January, KABOOM! launched the 25 in 5 Initiative to End Playspace Inequity, our bold plan to accelerate progress to achieve our mission, starting with ending playspace inequity in 25 places in five years. We were inspired to match the boldness and scope of her unprecedented moves by making some of our own.

The new Center for Effective Philanthropy report on the impact of Scott’s gifts on nonprofit recipients confirms what we have heard from our peers and partners – that many nonprofits are in a similar position of having big dreams and deeply informed roadmaps for change, but struggle against an often inequitable funding landscape that hinders rather than catalyzes our progress. In reflecting on the impact of Scott’s recent giving and conversations with other nonprofit executives, a few themes stand out to me that may be valuable to leaders in both philanthropy and the nonprofit sector.

Read the full article about the changing landscape of philanthropy by Lysa Ratliff at The Center for Effective Philanthropy.