Dr Ewan Kirk – Philanthropy & giving ‘permission to fail’

Including:

• Why is it so important to give charities permission to fail?
• What factors make something a “good” failure rather than a “bad” one?
• What is the nature of the risk in philanthropy?
• Is philanthropy as a whole too risk averse?
• Can we do anything to encourage donors/funders to take more risks and be willing to “fail”?
• Why is it important, in terms of giving charities the freedom to take risks, that we get away from asking them to deliver specific outcomes?
• Should we still try to gauge the effectiveness/success of funding?
• Would more unrestricted funding help to foster a culture of risk taking and innovation?
• When looking for genuinely transformative solutions to long-standing problems, it is necessary to support ‘upstream’ work (e.g. research, policy and advocacy) as well as ‘downstream’ work (e.g. direct interventions)?
•  Is there sometimes a danger that philanthropists go too far in looking for “big bets” or “moonshots”, and overlook more immediate issues and potential solutions as a result?
• Is it necessary to rein this tendency in at all? (i.e. to set parameters for what is “acceptable risk” when it comes to deploying philanthropic resources?)
• If one of the potential “exits” for risk-taking philanthropists is to get the state to adopt innovations or change the way it does things, what is best way of ensuring that this happens?
• If philanthropy genuinely has a higher risk tolerance than the public sector, why is that?
• Could the state itself become more risk-tolerant, or will it always need philanthropy?

Related links:

• The Turner Kirk Trust
• Ewan’s interview for the Beacon Collaborative on “Why donors should give charities ‘permission to fail’”
• Why Philanthropy Matters short guide to core cost funding
• Why Philanthropy Matters short guide to impact measurement