The New Money Is Coming. Generosity Is Not the Test.
The coming wave of AI giving will be judged less by what it gives than by what it's willing to give up
Quietly Making Sense
Essays on noticing what’s easy to miss in development funding, policy, and practice.
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Don't Just Fund the World Cup. Fund the Game
A Champion Can Be Beaten. A Field Is Harder.
Who Can Say No
On the powers a foundation can share, and the ones it cannot give away
The Courtesy of a Real No
Silence in a funding relationship is never neutral
Tenure and Circulation
How staff movement shapes the fields philanthropy funds
When the Paperwork Disappears, Power Doesn't
Trust-based philanthropy can reduce burden without increasing access or accountability
The Program Officer You Become
Reflections on the habits philanthropy rarely asks us to examine
Who Bears the Burden of Clarity?
On grantmakers' unexamined obligation to be legible
Learning a Language No One Teaches
How interpretive knowledge shapes who gets funded
Guessing What the Funder Wants
Philanthropic mystique and the quiet power of ambiguity
Who Gets to Taste the Cake
Reflections on humility in philanthropy