“Déjà vu all over again”: The short attention span and the cyclical obliviousness of the philanthropic and development industries

The philanthropic and development industries have much in common: ever-expanding jargon; genuine concern for the people at the bottom of the pyramid; a growing focus on evaluating impact - just to randomly name a few of the thousands of similarities. But in what follows I concentrate on a singular joint foible: their respective razor-slim bandwidths for learning.

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Unleashing the true potential of philanthropy to transform lives and communities

Over the past couple of years, I have spent an inordinate amount of time in meetings and conferences about the role of philanthropy in _______ (fill the blank with ‘global development’, ‘SDGs’, ‘closing space’, ‘climate solutions’ etc.). Usually, the conversation focuses on big foundations, family offices, high-net-worth-individuals…big philanthropy.

So, reading this new GrantCraft paper, How Community Philanthropy Shifts Power: What Donors Can Do to Help Make That Happen, produced in partnership with the Global Alliance of Community Philanthropy and the GFCF was certainly refreshing and much aligned with what we do at Charities Aid Foundation (CAF). 

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