JPMorgan Chase just announced a $40 million initiative to create or sustain 6,000 jobs. And honestly, who's going to argue with that? Not in an economy where graduates leave college buried in debt, social security is quietly hollowing out, the housing market looks less like an asset and more like a dare, and the job market is about as welcoming as the debt that got you there in the first place.

The headlines called it transformational economic leadership. Let’s look at the numbers first.

I just returned from my first @SkollWorldForum in Oxford. A few hundred of the world's most committed social impact leaders, five days, lots of coffee, and a few key takeaways that resonated with me and made me worried, hopeful, pensive, inspired, and echoed as I reflect on this impactful gathering:

As philanthropy continues to evolve, the question is no longer whether trust-based or traditional models are “better,” but how funders can intentionally design approaches that balance accountability, learning, and community voice. Revisiting insights from our Philanthropy at a Crossroads whitepaper, this post explores what’s changed—and what’s becoming clearer—in 2025.

Measuring the impact of your initiatives is essential to determine the effectiveness of your efforts. Impact measurement is both an art and a science that requires a systematic approach to collect and analyze data. It is not just about counting how many people you have reached, but about understanding the changes that have occurred in their lives.

In a room full of people who wake up in the morning in the service of others, and of a greater cause, the most impactful thing we can do is talk about how to instill better insights, processes, knowledge, tools, and data to amplify, improve, and scale their work, and bring to light the critical impact they create.