Fluxx | Technology news for grantmakers

As we round out the first quarter of 2023, we need to consider economic, social, and technical currents impacting foundations and grant managers. The external environment weighs heavily on operations and financial choices, setting the course for a challenging year. Here are four trends affecting charitable growth in 2023.

Season three of Untapped Philanthropy kicks off with new co-host, Neon One’s Director of Corporate Brand, Tim Sarrantonio, and a guest who came to philanthropy by way of technology: Michael Thatcher. 

Michael currently serves as the President and CEO of Charity Navigator, but prior to making the nonprofit jump, he spent 15 years at Microsoft in a number of roles, eventually becoming CTO for public sector accounts in Africa, the Middle East, and Greater Asia. Much of his work grappled with social and economic change imperatives and explored how regions could use technology as a lever for change. He often worked with the local nonprofits and NGOs and therefore was acutely aware of data that was (or wasn’t) leveraged within these teams.

Together Michael, Fluxx CDO and co-founder, Kerrin Mitchell, and Tim, kick off season three by delving into the Philanthropy Data Commons, how nonprofits can leverage their Charity Navigator rating to be more discoverable for donors, and explore what data means to both sides of the giving coin. 

We know that Grants Management Systems (GMS) help grantmakers accelerate their impact, improve relationships with grantees, and unlock the power of data for reporting and decision making.

We also know that many organizations are stuck in outdated systems—or are manually tracking everything through an ad hoc process using email and spreadsheets—which means that too many grants professionals are spending countless hours tracking down information, searching through disparate documents, and manually moving the work forward.

To help Grants Administrators and Grants Managers advocate for new technology, we teamed up with our friends at Grantbook to build a simple guide.

Another fantastic year of Untapped philanthropy has come to a close! This year, the conversations felt charged, and the industry leaders we spoke with all seemed eager to support progress for our industry. And while our podcast tries to cover a few key topics equally — the future of philanthropy, technology, policy, and capacity building efforts for grantees — this season our conversations seemed to always come back to trust-based philanthropy. 

We explored how we might implement trust-based philanthropy, learned from the leaders who worked to define this movement for funders, and took an honest look at the prevailing power imbalances of nonprofits and foundations. These conversations left us feeling inspired and ready to make a change too. 

Untapped Season Finale: A new host + fresh topics: what's next for season 3 of Untapped Philanthropy

It’s impossible to discuss the giving landscape in India today without acknowledging the drastic economic reforms that made it possible. In 1991, India adopted a new industrial policy to liberalize the economy, increase employment opportunities, boost production and productivity, and encourage foreign investments. The policy substantially deregulated the industrial sector. Today, India’s economy is one of the fastest growing in the world. And the profitability of the last 30 years has led to immense new wealth creation. Now, much of that new wealth is looking to give back, and India has seen a sharp rise in new philanthropists and donors. One organization looking to support these donors (and communities across the country) is Dasra.

Dasra is an intermediary and strategic philanthropy foundation in India's multi-stakeholder development ecosystem. Its goal is to help India achieve its sustainable development goals by 2023 by helping funders give more strategically to vulnerable communities. When the pandemic struck India, the team led by this week’s podcast guest and Dasra co-founder and Partner, Deval Sanghavi, sprang into action and employed swift and effective trust-based philanthropy practices to support communities throughout India.

Most of us working in tech are familiar with the term ‘fail fast.’ It’s a philosophy that values extensive testing and incremental development of an idea or process. Those who are told to fail fast are also instructed to cut losses the second testing reveals something isn't working, keep working, and pivot to a new idea.

The core belief is that if you’re willing to fail, you are willing to learn. Why? Because, in many instances, we learn more from our failures than our successes. Startups have committed to this philosophy fully. This process has propelled many companies to unicorn status far faster than previous incumbents. But can the same concept apply to philanthropy — an industry rife with multi-year studies, detailed reporting, and methodical approaches?

Summary:  

Have you recently wondered how to scale to support a new infusion of funding? Started issuing new types of grants or investments? Onboarding more people or new departments to collaborate on your grantmaking process? 

Feminist movements are under immense pressure. On June 24th, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, ending the right to an abortion that had been upheld for decades.
Many advocates and feminist leaders weren’t surprised by the decision and have warned that additional restrictive policies and laws will likely be passed. These restrictive laws threatening the health and safety of birthing people correspond with a spike in misogynistic content distributed across TikTok and other social platforms. The superior algorithms of these platforms compiled with a younger, more digitally savvy audience has made it possible for these videos to spread (billions of views within days) at an alarmingly fast rate.

But this rise in hateful vitriol has led to pushback and progress as well. Self-proclaimed misogynist Andrew Tate was recently banned from Meta platforms, Twitter, and TikTok. Scotland became the first country to offer feminine sanitary products for free nationwide. According to NPR, “New Zealand and Kenya distribute products for free in public schools” as well.

What’s #FixtheForm? And why did this international Grant Advisor campaign gain so much traction in a few short months? All this and more is revealed in this month's Untapped Philanthropy episode!

Untapped Philanthropy Season 2, Episode 6: What can we do to Fix the Form?

It’s no secret that millions of mission-related hours are lost every year navigating cumbersome grant application processes. To identify the needed top changes, a survey was launched by Laura Solomons, a fundraiser for a social mobility charity and former Trustee and Chair of a grant-giving foundation, and Kari Aanestad, the Co-Director of GrantAdvisor.org and the Associate Director at the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits. In less than four weeks it received 500 responses from grantseekers across nine countries, “representing every shape, size, and activity area of the nonprofit sector.”