Personalities in Philanthropy

In a recent Tactical Philanthropy blog post, Sean Stannard-Stockton highlights four approaches to philanthropy:

Charitable Giving seeks to buy nonprofit program execution that will accrue to beneficiaries. It is classic "buyer" behavior as defined by George Overholser is Building is Not Buying. The Charitable Giver is concerned primarily with the value of the programmatic execution relative to grant size and cares little about the nonprofit enterprise for its own sake.

Philanthropic Investment seeks to invest resources into nonprofit enterprises in order to increase their ability to deliver programmatic execution. It is classic "builder" behavior as defined in Building is Not Buying. The Philanthropic Investor, like a for-profit investor, is primarily focused on the longer term increase and improvement in programmatic execution relative to grant size.

Strategic Philanthropy seeks to buy nonprofit goods and services in a way that aligns with a theory of change defined by the strategic philanthropist. It too is "buyer" behavior, but the funder is primarily concerned with the degree to which the net result of the programmatic execution across their grantees advances the solution that they believe is most likely to solve the problem they seek to address.

Social Entrepreneurism seeks to directly execute programs that align with a theory of change, defined by themselves. They are the enterprise with which the other approaches engage. They are primarily concerned with the net social impact that is a result of their programs.

The Charitable Giver and Philanthropic Investor both transact with the enterprise, but do not seek to be the agent of change themselves.

The Strategic Philanthropist and the Social Entrepreneur both seek to be the agent of change. The Social Entrepreneur executes programs directly, while the Strategic Philanthropist outsources program execution. But just as a for-profit company that outsources their manufacturing still "owns" the product they offer, the Strategic Philanthropist "owns" their programs despite their outsourcing of execution.

I would put a fifth approach to philanthropy, and that is Adaptive Philanthropy.  It's an approach to social change that allows and individual to morphe between the other four identified.  In a TEDx talk I gave a year ago, I presented this model of philanthropy.  The idea is that philanthropy is a tool to strengthen communities and that the philanthropic process is a fluid one.  Adaptive Philanthropy is the ability to use multiple philanthropic approaches to address social issues.

Here is the video: