Philanthropy.blogspot.com Website Review

(free, online) discussion about philanthropy predictions. Information on that is available here group preparing a report for a big foundation on the future of philanthropy. I get asked to do a lot of these. I only agree to these conversations if there is going to be a public version of the report. I'm told that's the case - this report should be available in April. Some thoughts as I was asked to reflect on the last 5 years and then look ahead 10 years. All the new products, platforms and ways to give (DAFs, impact investing, crowdfunding platforms, text donations, cause marketing, etc.) are NOT adding up to more giving by more people. As Indiana University notes, since 2000 we've lost 20 million givers -> Perhaps we can stop as*uming product innovation equals growth? Where have the missing millions gone? I doubt people have given up on giving, after all we've been doing it for thousands of years. I think we have an instrumentation problem. Which is to say, we're measuring the wrong things. Changes in the tax code are expected to result in changes in giving to nonprofits (and to changes in how useful itemized tax forms will be for measuring giving behavior). It should include measurements of person-to-person giving (e.g., as happens on crowdfunding platforms), political donations and (BOGO or cause marketing). I've been calling for this since at least 2015 - see here Commercial platforms and nonprofit data: Does anyone really think Facebook is going to be the same thing in 2029 that it is in 2019? Not even the folks at FB would say that. Every nonprofit and philanthropist that is managing their giving, their outreach, their donors, etc. on this single platform should beware. The rules and longterm relationships with donors) in the growth plans of that company. If you can imagine either a different FB in 10 years or no FB 10 years from now, then it seems like a good idea not to put all your data eggs in a FB basket. (Or any commercial platform driven by a