Strategic philanthropy is smart but not wise.

That is why so many seasoned social change leaders have voiced doubts about it, publicly and privately, since it gained prominence and adherents. That said, knowing what to do and being able to do it are two fundamentally different things.

The approach outlined here only hints at what will be required to implement it, as our work over the past decade at Monitor Institute has taught us:

  • Transformative social change requires confronting messy political, social, and human realities, with a strong tolerance for ambiguity and a keen eye for the dynamic contextual forces that can be harnessed for your ends.

Change cannot be controlled. It can’t be distilled into a recipe that anyone can follow. We must learn to work together in new ways to guide and cultivate change—to master sensibilities and skills that remain too rare in philanthropy today.

Read the full article by Katherine Fulton about strategic philanthropy from the Monitor Institute