The Youth Cafe took part in the 2023 Global Philanthropy Forum conference, which focused on evolving mindsets and confronting orthodoxies in philanthropy. The program sought to engage in needed conversations but was not often conducted in a public forum. It sought roadmaps for funders to embed topics like accountability, localization and justice, equity, diversity and inclusion in their global work. Over the 2.5 days, 220 people were in attendance from 31 countries -- a truly global conversation.

KEY INSIGHTS:

We are now in a moment where partnerships between global philanthropy and local communities have the power to build cross-border collaboration.

• We need to fund the areas that have been invested in the past but also look at fields and countries that have received less funding to reach the most vulnerable and effect change.

More must be done to address climate change, which cuts across all issues. Development and climate change must now be seen to be intertwined.

• The biggest opportunity for philanthropy is addressing the damages of climate change and investing in projects that have no market returns.

• Building from a climate lens means baking resilience and positive externalities into every project.

  Philanthropists are starting to make big bet investments to try and match large-scale global problems with large-scale funding to achieve a tipping point. What makes this model work?

• Philanthropists need to take bold risks and have “Big Bet” energy: be disruptive, be risky, take a leap of faith and provide seed capital.

• Solutions should incorporate a “Year Zero” for strategic planning and systems alignment before deployment.

• Philanthropists must build trust with communities, be willing to take risks and fail to drive innovation.

• Big bets need to accelerate more agency at the local level, empowering local actors and bringing them into the decision-making process.

Government collaboration will be important to achieving scaled solutions.

• If you cannot scale, what you’re doing may be useful, but it won’t be relevant.

• Government is essential to how we construct the idea of supporting local populations. Working with governments, however, requires different partnership strategies and project pacing.

• Many of the challenges philanthropy addresses today are systems-level problems, meaning systems-level thinking is needed to identify solutions– often at scale.

At the same time, philanthropy must sharpen the focus on co-creation with local communities.

• Solutions should focus first on restoring agency, dignity and ownership to affected communities to empower them.

• Flexible, unrestricted funding enables innovation and responsiveness to community needs versus top-down directives.

• “How/why are we financing projects: are we funding recruiting contractors to implement our vision based on outside vision, or are we investing in local partners to make the change they want to see in their own communities.”
  

The world is changing, and the next generation will work differently. Philanthropy needs to adjust accordingly.

• To capture attention and educate new audiences, philanthropy needs to reach out to younger people through the platforms and voices they already relate to and not discount influencers as irrelevant.

• Your best messengers may be hiding in plain sight.

• Money is not the answer to the problem; empathy is. Teach younger audiences that charity is not a sacrifice; volunteering is not a burden. Philanthropy is its own reward.

We need to embrace a world of learning. Philanthropy must make mistakes, learn and course correct.

• Philanthropy is the ultimate risk capital. Don’t be afraid to embrace innovation and technical solutions that are on the cutting edge and may not proven yet.

• Design models that focus on agency, dignity and choice.

• Trust your experts and give them the resources they need to execute their project (and some latitude to fail so they can reassess and adjust as needed.)

• Philanthropy needs to acknowledge power dynamics and mistakes and continuously improve.

• Build channels for open communication and direct feedback from staff, grantees and communities.

• Ask questions like who is setting the priority, who can access those conversations, who decides where funding goes, who can change that decision and who can express their disappointment.

When we succeed, it will be a paradigm shift.

• Impact is not just a number; it’s fluid and can be redefined as you go along.

• Find a way to position yourself as part of the ecosystem.

• Philanthropy that works is unrestricted funding given over time.