Philanthropy in a Fractured World
Leaders call for bold action, collaboration & innovation at Skoll World Forum 2025
Key Takeaways
- Philanthropic organizations must “give more, do more” by increasing payout rates above the traditional 5% minimum
- Effective collaboration requires respecting different contexts and approaches while maintaining shared goals
- Local leadership and community-driven solutions are essential for sustainable impact
- New financing models and open-source data infrastructure can amplify philanthropic impact
One of the earliest sessions at the 2025 Skoll World Forum did not disappoint, answering our for call specific examples of what’s working and directional guidance from leading voices. This panel of global philanthropy leaders addressed the pressing question: “Can we fund at the speed of innovation?”
They answered boldly: we can and must try.
Here, we review some of the ways philanthropists are moving towards risk-taking and embracing moral imagination against a backdrop of significant geopolitical shifts, funding cuts to international development, and growing restrictions on civil society globally.
Speakers
- John Palfrey, President, MacArthur Foundation
- Olivia Leland, Founder & CEO, Co-Impact
- Binaifer Nowrojee, President, Open Society Foundations
- Kate Hampton, CEO, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation
- Naina Subberwal Batra (moderator), CEO, AVPN
Rather than retreating in the face of challenges, the panelists made a compelling case for philanthropy to be more ambitious, collaborative, and responsive.
Reimagining Philanthropic Funding Models
A clear consensus emerged around the need for foundations to increase their giving in response to current crises. John Palfrey shared that MacArthur Foundation had committed to raising its payout rate from 5% to 6% as “a floor, not a ceiling.”
This increase may seem modest, but Palfrey emphasized its potential collective impact: “US organized philanthropies do about $100 billion a year. If we all just increased by 20% that would be 20 more billion this year, 20 more billion the next year. If we did that for four years, that’d be $80 billion. Now we’re talking about real capital.”
Beyond simply giving more, panelists advocated for fundamental changes to how philanthropy operates:
1. Longer-term, more flexible funding
Palfrey challenged foundations to “drop whatever restrictions we think we can drop” and pointed to the success of MacArthur’s “no strings attached” fellowship model that provides $800,000 over five years to recipients.
2. Moving beyond metrics obsession
Binaifer Nowrojee cautioned against rigid impact measurement frameworks that can limit ambition. “What philanthropy is is the ability to be a talent spotter for good ideas, to recognize potential when you see it, to understand it comes packaged in different ways,” she noted, emphasizing that progress in areas like human rights is rarely linear.
3. Responding at speed
Olivia Leland addressed the paralysis that can occur when problems seem overwhelming: “When the problems seem really, really significant, it can be easy to get stuck and to feel like any amount is actually not going to matter. And I would say it’s actually the opposite at this point. This is the time for philanthropy to double down.”
The Power of Collaborative Approaches
The panelists repeatedly emphasized that no single organization can address global challenges alone. Effective collaboration requires both humility and clarity of purpose.
John Palfrey shared an example of how MacArthur Foundation addressed the crisis of local news deserts in the US by bringing together now 88 funders working together across all 50 states.
Kate Hampton emphasized the importance of respecting different approaches in collaborative work: “In a period of innovation, it would be crazy for everybody to be doing the same thing.” This sentiment reflects a broader call to embrace diversity of thought and approach. As Hampton explains, “the narcissism of small differences often gets in the way of collaboration.”
Olivia Leland reminded participants that effective collaboration begins with shared goals: “Let’s keep the end in mind… As long as we all agree on the end goal, if we come together, that’s how we’re going to get through the messy.”
Centering Local Knowledge and Leadership
A recurring theme was the critical importance of funding based on local knowledge and leadership, rather than imposing external solutions.
Binaifer Nowrojee explained that OSF’s approach has always been guided by “local knowledge, which is communities that are affected are best placed to make the decisions for themselves.”
Olivia Leland echoed this sentiment, urging funders to “stop trying to think for the partners, but actually let them do the work and then get on with it as funders behind it.”
This strategic patience and contextual understanding is essential for long-term impact, especially in challenging political environments.
Innovative Financing Mechanisms
Beyond traditional grantmaking, the panelists discussed innovative approaches to mobilize additional capital for social impact.
Kate Hampton described how her foundation developed a skills impact bond with the Indian government: “The way that the Indian government contracts skills organizations, training organization, was to pay per person trained. So what we did is we paid a bonus per woman who was still in a job three months later.” This shifted incentives from simply providing training to ensuring participants secured and maintained employment.
Hampton also emphasized the need to rethink the entire international financial architecture because the current financial architecture actually prevents some countries from investing at the scale they need to grow.
She pointed to initiatives like the Bridgetown Initiative, led by Prime Minister Mottley of Barbados, which has worked with civil society and philanthropy to “set the agenda” and unlock “hundreds of billions of extra financing” by reforming how international financial institutions operate.
Embracing Global Perspectives
The panelists emphasized the importance of looking beyond Western frameworks and embracing a more globally diverse set of perspectives and solutions.
Kate Hampton articulated this clearly: “I like to turn down the volume of anything coming out of the US and turn up the volume of things coming from other parts of the world.” She highlighted the need to recognize that “there are billions of people and trillions of dollars sitting in other parts of the world” and to focus on regional integration.
Binaifer Nowrojee noted that the world is fundamentally changing: “We’re no longer in a G7 world. The cumulative GDP of BRICS countries is higher than that of the G7, and that’s nearly half the world’s population.”
The current reduction in Western aid presents both challenges and opportunities. As Nowrojee observed, it opens space “to really ask questions about the model of aid dependence and Western aid, and whether it is time for host governments who are receiving this aid to think about their responsibilities and regions to organize themselves.”
Practical Actions for Forward-Looking Philanthropy
The panel concluded with practical recommendations for philanthropy to meet this moment:
Speak with moral clarity
John Palfrey emphasized the importance of philanthropy using its voice to defend fundamental principles like the rule of law, especially when they come under threat.
Fund open infrastructure
Kate Hampton highlighted the value of funding open-source data and tools that can be used by multiple stakeholders. She cited examples like satellites monitoring methane emissions and platforms mapping deforestation that provide critical information for both advocacy and regulation.
Support collaboration across issue areas
Binaifer Nowrojee noted that organizations increasingly work across traditional boundaries: “In some way the fields are already doing it, and philanthropies are not at the speed of innovation and so we are just catching up now.”
Maintain hope
Olivia Leland reminded participants that despite the difficulties, “any one of us, as we spend time talking to those that are doing the work and driving the change, we’re left with hope.”
The discussion reinforced that philanthropy stands at a crucial inflection point. While the challenges are immense, so too is the opportunity for transformative change. For philanthropic leaders and those who work with them, this is not a time for caution or business as usual, but for bold, collaborative action that centers local leadership and embraces innovative approaches to funding and partnership.
Learn More
Watch the full conversation on the Skoll Foundation’s YouTube channel:
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Note: Generative AI tools were used in the creation of this article to assist with research, summarization, and editing.
