Over the past two years, MacKenzie Scott’s philanthropy has been inspiring, empowering, and transformational for over a thousand organizations. Her approach to giving has embodied elements of a “trust-based philanthropy” approach, with unrestricted funding and multi-year gifts.
These gifts are enabling what was already impactful work in the social sector to turbocharge over two dozen issue areas. The volume, speed, and breadth of this type of impact philanthropy demonstrates the power of philanthropy to transform.
Today, Panorama is announcing our Collaborative Learning from Impact Philanthropy initiative, encompassing research, peer learning, and knowledge sharing, with a goal of informing and educating both the non-profit and philanthropic sectors about best practices in making and managing large grants.
The first product of this initiative is an infographic sharing the results of an in-depth review and analysis of Scott’s giving, that shows the sectors, issues and geographies that were the beneficiaries of the 1,251 grants that Scott announced via four Medium posts over the past two years. The research illuminates the diversity and intersectionality of the funded sectors and issues, the geography of these grants, and thus, the reach of the windfall gifts.
Over the next year, Panorama will partner with a sub-set of organizations that received gifts from Scott to facilitate connections and peer-to-peer learning among these organizations as they navigate the opportunities and challenges that result from receiving major philanthropic big bets. We aim to understand the myriad ways windfall gifts impact nonprofit organizations and will capture and disseminate these lessons so both philanthropists and other recipient organizations in similar situations will benefit from this knowledge.
Our hope is that this initiative inspires and educates leaders from the philanthropic and social sectors on how to dream big and identify pathways to accelerate the pace of social change, in order to have a more profound impact on the most pressing issues facing people and the planet.
