Increasing numbers of Americans want charitable organizations to step into the policy arena and lead the causes they care about. But if philanthropists are going to help make that happen, argue Patrick Guerriero and Susan Wolf Ditkoff, they will need to work through five fundamental questions....

For tens of millions of people, getting fresh water is a daily struggle that dominates their lives. But according to Water.org co-founders Gary White and Matt Damon, we have the tools to bring the water and sanitation crisis to an end....

How can diverse change efforts that aim for a similar outcome be thought of comprehensively? What are the relationships between them? And how do they interact most powerfully to speed change? Veteran community organizer Steve Waddell breaks it down for us....

The solution to systemic social problems, argue Ganz, Kay, and Spicer, is collective political action by organized constituencies using the power of democratic government to overcome resistance to structural social change — not more social entrepreneurship....

The CEO of CollaborateUp argues that the Trump administration can make foreign assistance more politically sustainable by driving better deals for the American people while improving lives in the developing world....

As funders and nonprofits increasingly recognize that no single organization or strategy can solve a complex social challenge at scale, they are joining forces with a type of intermediary organization built to serve as a hub for advocacy and action and roll all stakeholders toward a defined goal....

In the latest installment of our SSIR@PND series, Sarah Murray explains how the Rockefeller Foundation's "scan and search" approach casts a wide net to identify the issues it is best suited to tackle....

The way that individual donors think about themselves shapes their charitable giving preferences; your job is to figure out who they are and what they care about....

While investments in the creative economy have the potential to stabilize threatened communities and generate quality jobs, argues Laura Callanan, the impact investment community has been confoundingly slow to recognize the opportunity....

Impact investing originally was created to improve the lives of others, but nowadays achieving predefined financial returns has become the primary goal; that needs to change, write Mara Bolis and Chris West.... 

Innovations for Poverty Action's Duflo and McAnnally-Linz argue that impact evaluations should always help decision making, whether immediately or in the longer term, and should also add to an existing body of evidence....

In the latest installment of our SSIR@PND series, management consultant Kathy O. Brozek explains how The Wooden Floor is licensing its successful arts education model to break the cycle of poverty....

Strategic philanthropy entails risk no less than big bets, and we should acknowledge its importance and effectiveness — and encourage more of it, says Hewlett Foundation president Larry Kramer....

By prioritizing the needs of coastal communities, we have a better chance of mobilizing the hundreds of millions of people who work in and around fishing worldwide to support ocean conservation rather than oppose it, writes Blue Ventures' Steve Rocliffe....

Effective altruists have a revolutionary idea, writes Createquity's Ian David Moss, but their rhetoric and inflexibility are limiting its potential...

For those working on a cause they care about, the first instinct is often to make sure that as many people as possible are aware of the problem, write Ann Christiano and Annie Neimand. But is that the best approach?...

Kiko Suarez, vice president of communications at the Lumina Foundation, and Alph Bingham, a co-founder of InnoCentive, explain how the low cost of crowdsourcing and the high value of crowdsourced solutions can translate into a high return on investment for foundations....

The mere fact that your organization has built an innovative program doesn't mean there's a demand for it. The Bridgespan Group's Tazz Hussein and Matt Plummer explain why it's time for nonprofits to develop a more sales-driven approach to social change....