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Trust-based philanthropy
Why impact assessment remains crucial for good and effective philanthropy
A lot of good ideas have come from the fashion for so-called trust-based philanthropy. We at NPC have pushed funders to make more of their grants unrestricted for ages, so we were pleased to see …
Trusted partnership: pushing the boundaries of traditional grant-making and trust-based philanthropy
Trust-based philanthropy has been critiqued for emphasizing unrestricted funding to the detriment of ‘criteria- and data-driven’ (thereby ‘unbiased’) funding. Its defenders argue that it is about much more than unrestricted funding, highlighting also the streamlined …
Funders and charities should be equal players in a collective effort
In response to recent exchanges in Alliance magazine about the nature and efficacy of trust based philanthropy, we join the founders of the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project in encouraging all funders to ‘look beyond the headlines …
We practice trust-based philanthropy. Here’s what it looks like
Recently, Simon Sommer of the Jacobs Foundation in Switzerland wrote a critique of the practice of trust-based philanthropy (TBP), a framework for giving that’s gained popular acclaim within our sector over the past several years. …
A historical case for trust-based philanthropy
Like any other field of human activity, philanthropy has gone through different fashions over the years. Whether it’s impact philanthropy or participatory grantmaking – every new idea about how the wealthy should give has come …
Imagining a world where we trust young feminists
When we think about the ways that philanthropy has worked historically, what we’ve heard from and shared with young activists during the Pro-action Cafe (a community space for open conversations about the practice of resourcing …
We’re here to clear the air on what trust-based philanthropy is and what it isn’t
Recent pieces in Alliance magazine have attempted to poke holes in trust-based philanthropy, the approach to giving that is being increasingly recognized as a strategy to address the inherent power dynamics between funders and nonprofit …
Letter to the editor: Trust-based philanthropy is not a myth, it’s a solution
Like Simon Sommer says of himself, I may not know what trust-based philanthropy is. But I have a good idea of where he goes wrong. Let’s set aside the broad generalizations (‘unrestricted funding seems to …
Is the trust-based philanthropy bubble about to burst?
If trust-based philanthropy is the new orthodoxy sweeping the philanthropic world, then MacKenzie Scott is its undisputed champion. Scott has turned the institutional philanthropy model on its head donating over $12 billion to nonprofits over …
It’s time to ditch the mantra of trust-based philanthropy
The omnipresent demand for so-called ‘trust-based philanthropy’ is, at best, naïve. At worst, it can be counterproductive and dangerous. What our sector has to achieve instead is unbiased funding. In current conversations among philanthropists, providing …
