Stanford University

The flow of philanthropic dollars is larger than ever: for-profit companies are pursuing social bottom lines, nonprofits are employing business metrics, and large philanthropies are partnering with government to stimulate innovation. In short, the blurring of the boundaries between states, for-profits, and nonprofits, overlaid by rapid technological advancements, is fundamentally altering the how and where of social change, and who makes it happen. However, all of these twenty-first-century changes are taking place within a twentieth-century public policy framework. The Philanthropy, Policy and Technology project of our GOS grantee, the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, will map and document these changes in philanthropy, their causes, and their possible effects. It will also propose policies that will support and stimulate a sustainable, diverse, vibrant and equitable independent sector as it faces these changes.