Open Gifts

Ideas for Scaling Up Philanthropic Impact through Open and Iterative Problem-Solving

When I try to explain my job to someone like my mother, it usually comes out like this:

“There are many foundations set up to give money away to help solve problems in the world. I work with many of those foundations to try to help them solve environmental problems that are affecting people’s health, like pollution in our air and water, or toxic chemicals in our everyday products and food.”

My mother usually looks at me for a minute, gives me a hug, and goes back to her garden. I think about how to explain my job more clearly. And about how to do it better.

The collections of essays posted here began during a recent sabbatical which provided quiet space to think about a decade of work with funders and to explore ideas for increasing philanthropy’s impact on major social problems.

These essays reflect my personal views, not those of the Health and Environmental Funders Network (HEFN) or any other organization with which I am affiliated.

They draw on my decade-plus experiences with HEFN and environmental health efforts only to focus on what I know best, rather than to speak for them or to claim their uniqueness.

Please treat these essays as drafts, shared in the “release early, release often” spirit of open source software developers who invite regular feedback as they write, share, and rewrite software code.

I hope this may spark your own thinking and good conversations to come.