When an individual or family commits to using wealth for philanthropic purposes, they begin a journey. That journey starts with setting initial social impact goals and choosing an initial approach.
Establishing your initial social impact goals is more than articulating your values and your overall aspirations — it is the first concrete step in moving from good intentions to impact. It involves identifying what issues or cause areas you will address and what population or geographic focus your philanthropy will serve.
No matter what goal you identify — addressing climate change, reforming criminal justice, advancing gender equity, ensuring every child has a path to success in your hometown — you will need to make choices about how to achieve that goal. No choice is necessarily better than another, and all can lead to greater social impact.
However, until you make these early choices, it will be difficult to make much progress. Practically speaking, it is not feasible to conduct a good needs assessment and landscape scan on the entire universe of societal needs.
The advice you’ll seek, the grantees you’ll consider, the partners you’ll work with, and the team you’ll ultimately build will be very different if you choose to improve early childhood outcomes in the United States compared to advancing gender equity in South Asia. It doesn’t mean that you can’t shift focus as you learn more. In fact, most donors do. But you have to start somewhere.
Early Decisions and Implications for Talent
The team you need will depend on the choices you make early on. While you may revisit your answer to each of the questions below, your initial answers will inform the talent you’ll need to start on the path to impact.
What issue/cause area will my philanthropy address?
CHOICES
There are many worthy issues and causes that can benefit from effective philanthropy. A few examples to illustrate:
- Education
- Health
- Safety and security
- Inequality
- Economic development
- Environmental sustainability
- Civil society
IMPLICATIONS FOR THE TALENT YOU’LL NEED
Each issue or cause area has its own set of challenges, players, indicators of success, and history of what has and hasn’t worked. Without people who bring issue- or cause-specific knowledge and networks, your progress will be slower, and you risk wasting time and effort making the same mistakes others have before.
Which populations and geographic areas will most benefit, if my philanthropic activities succeed?
CHOICES
Many populations and geographic areas would benefit from more effective philanthropic support. A few examples to illustrate:
- Women and girls globally
- Refugees displaced by conflict in the Middle East
- Homeless veterans in Los Angeles
- Black business owners in the Deep South
IMPLICATIONS FOR THE TALENT YOU’LL NEED
Effective implementation requires adapting efforts to the needs and circumstances of specific populations and geographic areas. Most high net worth donors are very different from the beneficiaries they hope to help. To adapt your efforts well and avoid blind spots, you will need people with knowledge and connections to the populations and geographies you seek to serve.
How directed vs. open will my approach be?
CHOICES
A directed approach typically involves a specific “theory of change” — i.e., a strong hypothesis regarding the best way to achieve a social impact goal.
A more open approach tends to emerge more iteratively and organically, based on opportunities that present themselves.
IMPLICATIONS FOR THE TALENT YOU’LL NEED
The more directed an approach you take, the more susceptible you will be to losing beneficiary perspective and the perspectives of others who share your social impact goal, but not your chosen approach. You will need to intentionally identify people to counteract that risk.
The more open an approach you take, the more you will need help incorporating what you learn in real- time so that your efforts make progress and don’t devolve into randomness.
Will I fund related efforts that do not involve financing the work of a nonprofit or NGO?
CHOICES
All three sectors — government, business, nonprofit — can advance or impede social impact goals.
While most donors historically have focused only on funding nonprofits through gifts and grants, others have used PRIs (program- related investments), MRIs (mission-related investments), and other financial vehicles to achieve social impact.
For more on ways philanthropists are using their wealth by funding businesses and political campaigns, see resources.
IMPLICATIONS FOR THE TALENT YOU’LL NEED
Your choice will inform whom you eventually hire and work with. For example, explicitly integrating considerations of social impact into commercial investments is a relatively new capability, requiring both skill in measuring and managing social impact and skill in assessing the commercial viability of a business entity. In other words, the talent hurdle is considerably higher.
Which philanthropic plays will I support to achieve my social impact goal?
CHOICES
We’ve identified four broad categories or ”plays” that philanthropy can back:
- Direct service programs
- Systems building/strengthening efforts
- Policy change and advocacy
- Innovation and R&D
Some funders focus only on one, while others may back efforts across all four. For more on the strengths and limitations of each approach, see the Four Philanthropic Plays.
IMPLICATIONS FOR THE TALENT YOU’LL NEED
Each play has different strengths and limitations, indicators of progress, types of evidence you can use to assess the potential of an opportunity, expected timeframes for results, and risks.
It is rare for people to have experience across all.
Once you decide on your initial approach, your choice of plays will eventually inform whom you hire and work with. For example, having someone on your team who understands the ways local, state, and government rules affect your social impact goals will be helpful if you choose to back policy and advocacy efforts.