As we work to advance racial equity in philanthropy, write Reid and Dean-Coffey, four practices can help us find our "learning edge" — the boundary of our comfort zone and competencies where change is truly transformative and freeing....

Is commercial-scale torrefaction — the process of turning wood scraps from forest-thinning operations into a coal substitute — a partial solution to climate change? Gaines, a freelance science journalist living in Seattle, reports....

Low-income communities need ownership over the resources that flow into them and defenses to protect them from feckless funders and footloose capital, argues Margulies. In an age when the failure of unregulated capitalism is becoming more evident every day, options like the neighborhood trust cannot be implemented quickly enough....

With wages stagnating, benefits shrinking, and personal debt increasing, financial precarity has become widespread in the United States, writes Leana, but the philanthropic community has been and can continue to be a catalyst for solutions to the problem.... 

Whether you are doing advocacy for the first time or revamping an existing program, the recipe for success, writes van Geldern, requires a careful balance between analytical thinking and action.... 

Honig looks at new research that explores when top-down control works best in international development work and when organizations should let employees in the field navigate challenges using their own judgment....

Across the social sector, writes Twersky, there is a growing recognition of the importance of being human centered — of putting the people we seek to benefit at the center of our problem-solving efforts....

Movements such as #MeToo and Time's Up reinforce why a rapid-response fund might focus on women human rights defenders. Seo, the founder of ReaMedica and ReaMedica Health Care Kenya, reports on one such fund....

Since its creation in 2012, #GivingTuesday has spread across the world, with official movements in forty-six countries and unofficial activity in dozens more. As Curran explains, there are important lessons all nonprofits can learn from its success....

Freelance journalist Sarah Murray looks at an innovative fund in Chicago that is demonstrating how place-based impact investing can transform a community....

Social impact bonds (SIBs) do not offer a silver bullet for solving social problems, writes Murray, but they may represent the first expression of a new form of capitalism that optimizes risk for return and impact....

Although they didn't originate the concept, Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, gave the philanthropy LLC its "big reveal" when they launched the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative in December 2015. Brakman Reiser, a professor of law at Brooklyn Law School, explains why the vehicle is attractive to high-net-worth donors and, barring another round of tax reform, why it's here to stay....

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....