The social change game is evolving

Last week I had the chance to contribute to the HistPhil blog--the leading platform for discussion about the history of philanthropy and the issues confronting the foundations of today. The piece presents some of the ideas I published earlier this year in The Foundation Review.

One issue I devoted a little more attention to in this piece is the way the landscape of social innovation is itself changing.

Here's an excerpt:

Rather than conceiving of foundations as definitionally in the grantmaking business, this mental model locates foundations in the ideas business. Grants were once nearly the totality of that business—and they still have the leading role in the story. But they are no longer the whole story.

What changed?

It’s not because contemporary program officers are cleverer than their forbears. It’s because the world has changed and, in particular, the world of ideas has changed.

For most of the first 120 or so years foundations existed, the people who ran and worked in them were of the same socioeconomic milieu as those who walked the other corridors of power in U.S. society. Happily, that is ever less the case.

The institutions of power themselves are becoming more diverse, however sclerotic and halting the progress. Major foundations especially now reflect in their boards, leadership and staff a much greater degree of diversity by gender, race and ethnicity. This has had a demonstrable impact on how foundations work—and, most especially, the focus of their work.

The landscape of ideas has also become more complicated, confused and fractious. Some of this is to be celebrated. Many voices previously consigned to the margins can now bypass the legacy gatekeepers of old. But so can those who seek to confuse or pollute our public culture. And, even among those operating in good faith, the mix of media used to bring ideas into discussion and contest are less and less amenable to the degree of nuance invariably required to manage the production of social goods in a complex, democratic society.