Third Wave of Philanthropy Event

I was invited to attend a Q&A with Nan Ransohoff of Stripe yesterday, moderated by Sonia Nigam about Nan's viral "Third Wave of Philanthropy" article.

It was a lovely reflection of her piece, and she brought to bear a fundamental question:

"If this AI transition goes well and we land in a world of abundance and human flourishing, what does this mean in practice?"

If her back-of-the-napkin math is correct, then we are looking at $37B-$100B of potential new philanthropic capital per year, inviting the next question:

"What is the most capital efficient way to solve a problem?"

She mentioned defining the outcome you want to achieve first, creating a strategy to get there, and understanding why that strategy is an efficient use of capital to deliver that outcome.

What I loved most about this conversation was the business lens -- something that is often absent from similar conversations in the social sector.

I think it's important to merge the two lenses, business + social sector, to bring out-of-the-box ideas on how we can deploy capital at the speed and scale this moment demands, and invite novel solutions to age-old problems.

My favorite line: "Be outcome obsessed, and flex the strategy."

She's right. We have to be adaptable as we are ushered into this new AI era.