Philanthropists, Nonprofit Executives and Board Members Must Awaken to the Dawn of the Impact Era

We are entering a new era—the impact era—where increasingly philanthropists are grounding their generosity in decisions focused on having real social impact. And, in response, nonprofit organizations are learning to refocus their strategies to maximize that impact.

When Hurricane Harvey made landfall in August 2017, it dumped an estimated 27 trillion gallons of rain on southeast Texas and devastated countless communities. GiveDirectly, a relatively new nonprofit that digitally transmits cash directly to people living in extreme poverty, watched as those communities struggled to recover. Since its founding, the organization had focused its work on countries in East Africa and demonstrated the power of cash transfers in extreme poverty alleviation.