We are living through a cascading crisis of democracy, inequality, and disruption—and philanthropy must respond not with incrementalism, but with urgent, coordinated, long-view action. This means calming fear, reimagining broken processes, and shaping the future of technology through equity-centered governance—before it shapes us.
“Don’t invest so you can operate in the future. Invest so we HAVE a future.”
Let’s say it again for the folks in the back. Or the ones hiding behind their payout rates.
👥 #People: Calm the Fear, Mobilize the Sector
Has anyone read Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi? There’s a line that echoes in my head:
“Maybe now, she thought, now in the blaze of fire, they surely would have to see. But it was as if they’d come to take the horrible for granted, mistaking it for the ordinary.”
Welcome to 2025. The blaze is here—and some of us still can’t see it.
What Vu Le recently warned should shake every foundation board and program officer awake:
“This is not a crisis like others... This is a rapid dismantling of democracy to replace it with an authoritarian state... Debating whether the payout rate should increase to 6% or 10% is entirely missing the point.”
We don’t need a payout rate conversation. We need a movement.
And the people in this room—at PEAK Grantmaking 2025—are being tasked with that movement.
This year’s theme is Onward: Leading with Courage.
Courage doesn’t look like 12-month general support. Courage looks like aligning our funding with our hopes for the sector, for our collective future.
As Audre Lorde reminds us:
“When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.”
🔄 #Process: Change the Mechanics Before It’s Too Late
First, gratitude for the funders who opened their coffers for rapid response in moments of crisis. But we are still doing it wrong.
Nonprofits shouldn’t have to spend staff time on rushed applications only to get rejected. That’s a terrible #ROI.
Let’s build better:
✔️ Add a “Lost Funding” checkbox in JustFund or Givebutter to match orgs with new donors?
🤖 Use matchmaking algorithms. AI is here. Let’s apply it where it matters. Daffodil is doing this for DAFs.
🧩 Push more collaborative funds through fiscal sponsors and intermediaries to reduce the burden on grassroots orgs.
We discussed this in the NTEN AI community and we’ll keep saying it louder: outdated processes are costing us time, trust, and talent. The Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) concurs.
At PEAK, this truth is front and center. I wrote while VP of Grants Management at Smile Train:
“The grantee report as we know it is dead. Or at least on life support.”
Reporting should be a tool for relationship and reflection, not surveillance and control. That’s why the Oral and Alternate Reporting (OAR) movement emerged—from a PEAK Connect thread into a national learning community now driving practice change.
OAR centers:
Learning for impact
Relationships over extraction
And values-aligned practice over bureaucratic legacy
Additionally, if you’re here at PEAK, you know grantmaking timelines are too short.
Vu said it best: “Our funding-for-outcomes time horizons are decades too short.”
The conservative movement played the long game. Why are we stuck at 12-month grants with reports focused on accountability instead of learning; Learning that can help us more precisely steward grant dollars.
Join us next month to continue Reimagining Reporting with Northern California Grantmakers and Philanthropy New York.
🧠 #Tools: Govern the Machines Before They Govern Us
AI is not the future—it’s the now.
Clara Shih put it plainly in Joel Witt's Expert Roundup:
“This is a big disruption, and it’s moving really fast. There are risks we have to mitigate.”
There is a window to shape AI for good. To be more like the EU and create a philanthropic GDPR—a rights-based framework to protect communities from exploitation, not feed them into surveillance capitalism.
But that window is closing. And philanthropy cannot sit this one out.
AI can help us:
Get the right message to the right people at the right time
Analyze decades of grantee perception data for systems insights (imagine CEP’s GPR embedded in a model!)
Streamline burdensome workflows that burn out nonprofit staff
But it will do none of those things if we don’t govern it. If we don’t insist on equity-centered design. If we don’t embed ethics, transparency, and care from the start.
Let’s call for a #TechnoSocialContract that spans #philanthropy, #nonprofit, #government, and #tech.
A contract rooted in care, community safety, and collective governance.
📣 Kudos and Critical Questions
👏 Kudos to:
MacArthur Foundation for moving from 5% to 6% giving.
Patrick J. McGovern Foundation for pushing AI for public interest.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for long-standing systems and equity work.
But here’s the hard question, as posed by Rahul Chandran:
Mac could have doubled its giving and only lost 20% of its endowment value. Would that be a failure—or the most rational act of courage we’ve seen in years?
And as C.S. Lewis said:
“If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small …For many of us the great obstacle to charity lies not in our luxurious living or desire for more money, but in our fear—fear of insecurity.”
And as adrienne maree brown reminds us:
“Things are not getting worse. They are getting uncovered. We must hold each other tight and continue to pull back the veil.”
🧭 Final Thought: Lead With Courage
We are here in New Orleans, a city that knows what rebuilding looks like.
Let’s remember what this moment asks of us:
Calm the fear—mobilize your people
Change the process—liberate the system
Govern the tools—before they govern us
Don’t invest so you can operate in the future. Invest so we have a future.
🔑 Five Takeaways for Readers
This is not business as usual.
The sector must acknowledge the depth of democratic, ecological, and social crises we face—and act with aligned urgency.Funding timelines must reflect the scale of change.
Fund movements, not moments. Think in decades, not months.Processes must be redesigned for trust and liberation.
Let go of extractive reporting and application mechanisms that erode the very relationships we claim to value.AI is here—and we must shape it with intention.
Equity-centered design and ethical governance must lead, not follow, technological adoption.Fear is human—but courage is collective.
This is our call to act from a place of vision, not hesitation. Lead with values, with people, and with power.