PHILANTHROPY FLAGSHIP
PHILANTHROPY FLAGSHIP
The Philanthropic Observatory
Philanthropic capital has a catalytic role to play in the face of entangled global challenges. But most funders give in conventional silos that block cross-domain knowledge-sharing, don't reward collaboration, and obscure how different systems interact to perpetuate—or disrupt—the status quo.
The Philanthropic Observatory, developed in response to priorities surfaced in a nine-month pilot with Global Philanthropy Forum involving more than 20 funders, brings together foundation leaders and their grantee networks to rethink how philanthropic capital responds to those challenges. Together they consider how to direct that capital for greater effect across interconnected systems.
Signals to Strategy
The Observatory is organized into three steps.
Studying Change builds a shared view of emerging signals across governance, security, technology, society, and the environment, so foundations can see past their own program silos to where risks and opportunities intersect and how today's choices compound across systems over time.
Envisioning Change turns those intersections into alternative future worlds, so participants can pressure-test strategies in advance and identify where capital deployed now would do the most good against convergent challenges and emergent opportunities.
Leading Change converts that foresight into practice: tools, partnerships, and capital strategies that put philanthropic dollars directly toward the intersections the first two phases identified.
OF NONPROFITS
Have lost funding from at least one source
OF NONPROFITS
Face higher demand than at the height of COVID
Why Us
Decades of experience from leading a decade-long peace and security funder collaborative, working within private foundations and grantmaking affinity groups, and thirty-plus years of experience at the intersection of foresight and design.
A proven model. A nine-month pilot brought together senior leaders from more than 20 organizations stewarding $37 billion in assets, producing a working prototype: the Philanthropic Observatory. This program is built on what that pilot actually learned.
An effective secretariat. We facilitate ongoing cohorts, host the Foresight Radar, and share what the network is learning so funders and grantees can keep building shared capacity to anticipate and move through change together, rather than relying on a one-time convening.
Why Now
Recent Center for Effective Philanthropy research shows that nearly 70% of nonprofits have lost funding from at least one source, while 65% face higher demand than at the height of COVID. A persistent disconnect remains: 71% of foundation leaders believe their priorities align with community needs, but fewer than one in four nonprofit leaders agree.
The deeper risk is missing an emerging challenge before it compounds, or an opportunity to coordinate before it closes. The Philanthropic Observatory addresses both by keeping funders and grantees engaged in shared sensemaking as conditions evolve.
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The Foresight Radar is a living, interactive map of signals of change across seven domains, including environment, finance and economics, governance and politics, health and wellbeing, infrastructure, society and culture, and technology. Leaders use it to study how their operating environment is shifting, see emerging patterns and collisions, and prepare for a range of plausible futures instead of betting on a single forecast.
In our philanthropy work, the Radar anchors horizon‑scanning, early‑warning, and “what if” conversations. It is often the first resource leaders explore to ground themselves in the bigger picture of change.
Philanthropy is operating amid accelerating change: overlapping crises, shifting geopolitical conditions, rapidly advancing technologies, and growing pressure on the institutions that underpin collective action. To remain relevant and effective, the sector needs stronger capacities to anticipate change, make sense of complexity, and act in coordination with others.
Horizon 2045 and the Global Philanthropy Forum created Reimagining Philanthropy for an Age of Complexity, a nine-month pilot program that brought together philanthropic leaders to explore what those capacities might require. Through foresight, scenario planning, and human-centered design, the cohort examined forces shaping philanthropy’s future and developed practical concepts for new tools, networks, and approaches to collective intelligence.
The program centered on a guiding question: “What new infrastructure for cross-sector coordination and collective intelligence would enable philanthropy to respond more effectively to simultaneous crises, especially when change outpaces institutional decision-making cycles?”
Explore the case study to learn about the methods used throughout the pilot, and read the pilot report for the cohort’s findings, scenarios, and emerging design concepts.
Reimagining Philanthropy
for an Age of Complexity
Philanthropy is operating amid accelerating change: overlapping crises, shifting geopolitical conditions, rapidly advancing technologies, and growing pressure on the institutions that underpin collective action. To remain relevant and effective, the sector needs stronger capacities to anticipate change, make sense of complexity, and act in coordination with others.
Horizon 2045 and the Global Philanthropy Forum created Reimagining Philanthropy for an Age of Complexity, a nine-month pilot program that brought together philanthropic leaders to explore what those capacities might require. Through foresight, scenario planning, and human-centered design, the cohort examined forces shaping philanthropy’s future and developed practical concepts for new tools, networks, and approaches to collective intelligence.
The program centered on a guiding question: “What new infrastructure for cross-sector coordination and collective intelligence would enable philanthropy to respond more effectively to simultaneous crises, especially when change outpaces institutional decision-making cycles?”
Explore the case study to learn about the methods used throughout the pilot, and read the pilot report for the cohort’s findings, scenarios, and emerging design concepts.
Cohort Sponsorship
The Philanthropic Observatory is funded by Cohort Sponsorships. With sponsorship, a single funder underwrites a defined group of foundations, grantees, or partners through the Philanthropic Observatory.
Is Cohort Sponsorship right for you? Sponsorship works best for funders who:
Support a defined network of grantees, portfolio organizations, or partner institutions who would benefit from shared strategic literacy
Want to build foresight capacity across a field or region, not just within their own institution
Prefer a single relationship and invoice over managing individual enrollments
Are thinking in multi-year terms, not a single cohort cycle