A new era needs new blueprints

I've written the Blueprint on Philanthropy and (social investing/the social economy/digital civil society) for 16 years. In the 2025 version I noted that things are going to change, I just didn't't know how. I know a little bit more, now.

I'm working with a small group in Europe, the UK, and Africa to imagine ways for other people to write/record/paint/discuss other Blueprint formats. I'm planning on putting out shorter essays, at semi-regular intervals, that might then be assembled into an annual "Blueprint." I'm participating in a dialogue series with Lina Srivastava's Center for Transformative Change and The Impact Trust that will generate short pieces - by me and fellow participants. The conversations we have over at the PBC are likely to inspire reflections and ideas.

In the west, chess is played from a static, pre-ordained beginning. In Ethiopia, they play a version of chess known as Senterej - in which both players place their pieces anywhere on the board they want, until such time as one player must take the other's piece - then the game proceeds as most of us have played it. Turns out, there are many variants of chess - mixing up the beginnings, the rules, even the size of the board. In general, this is how things feel to me - "the rules of the game" are changing at rates and degrees the likes of which some not only didn't see coming but they're still refusing to see it now. I learned about Senterej from Gerry Salole, former ED of the European Foundation Centre, and couldn't let go of the metaphor. Things in the US democratic project are changing, rapidly and in relationship, unevenly and episodically, unfairly and not in any objectively positive way for most people. Abstract terms such as democracy, rights, citizenship, rule of law - have not been motivating for far too many Americans. It's why I stopped making predictions a few years ago. And it's why change is needed now.

I said to someone the other day, ""We are of the generation that's going to say goodbye to a lot of what we thought would never change. We need to learn from and try to inspire the folks who will be living into whatever the new is." I hope the new approach to the Blueprint series will do that.

Let me remind readers here - every Blueprint since the first has included some version of the following paragraph about blueprints as metaphors:

I use the metaphor of a blueprint to describe a forecast because blueprints are guides for things yet to come and storage devices for decisions already made. My father is an architect. I grew up surrounded by scale models of buildings, playing in unfinished foundations, trying to not get hurt by exposed rebar. I eavesdropped on discussions with contractors, planning agencies, homeowners, and draftsmen—all of whom bring different skills and interpretations to creating, reading, and using blueprints. Creating a useful blueprint requires drawing ideas from many people, understanding the "site" or "community" where the work will happen, using a common grammar so that work can get done, and expecting multiple interpretations of all interim and even the final products. I intend my Blueprints to speak to everyone involved in using private resources for public benefit and to help people see their individual and institutional roles within the dynamics of the larger collective project of creating civil society. I hope you will use it as a starting point for debate and as input for your own planning.

They are not static representations of a single, cookie cutter approach to things. In order to be of use, blueprints must involve many people with many different types of expertise and aesthetics, lots of arguments, experts with hammers as well as CAD software, and an ability to listen to people. The final document will look nothing like the early napkin sketches or even the interim plans the builders use. The process and the differences between originating ideas and final product are both good models for those doing strategy, program planning, investment forecasting, and other fun philanthropic/civil society tasks.

The intention for future Blueprint(s) is for them to be:

·       Process-Oriented: Ongoing dialogue rather than annual publication

·       Movement-Connected: Centered on community wisdom and grassroots innovation

·       Transformation-Focused: Documenting not just what's happening, but what's becoming possible

·     Globally Authored: Authentic voices from every continent shaping philanthropic understanding (especially if you can help)

The next Impact Trust Dialogue series on Aid, Trade and Philanthropy begins our effort to do this (this being the "blueprint" differently). Informed by three distinct conversations among a consistent and growing group of participants, I intend to better understand the mutually reinforcing ways these different subjects represent a systematic assault on seven decades of global cooperation architecture. The convergence creates "double jeopardy" where regions experiencing aid withdrawal are simultaneously hit by trade disruption, while philanthropy faces its own existential threats.

But crisis creates opportunity. The current disruption opens space for new blueprints—locally authored, globally connected, responsive to this unprecedented moment.

The “new” form Blueprint will synthesize these conversations not as traditional philanthropy reporting, but as documentation of how communities are learning to "play Senterej"—to navigate simultaneous change when the world is rewriting the rules in real time. I hope this investigation will reveal where, while the global North retreats from commitments, the global South builds alternatives that could prefigure a more just international order.

You can join us:

Three Dialogues, One Crisis

Dialogue 1: Resilience Beyond Aid Dismantling dependency, reimagining development

Million Belay (Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa)

Enrique Roig (Former USAID Director)

Eddie Mandhry (Schmidt Futures/Former Yale)

Gerry Salole (Moderator)

📆 – Tuesday June 10th

🕑 – 16h30 CET / 15h30pm UK / 10h30am ET / 07h30 PST

🔗 – Register for your zoom link

Dialogue 2: Fragmentation & Failed Promises Trade systems in crisis

Dialogue 3: Confronting Contradictions Philanthropy's struggle for redemption in radical solidarity