I was intrigued to see a recent piece in Proximate by Chrissy Garton highlighting the well-intentioned yet often problematic field of philanthropic advising. The author shared a perspective I could relate to, having worked alongside philanthropic advisors for over two decades, most recently as the Director of Philanthropic Advising at a progressive community foundation.
As I read, I nodded along, agreeing with the barriers laid out in the piece. Bespoke services? Check. Proprietary methods? Check. Splintered ecosystem with confusing fee structures? Check.
The article, and others like it, confirm what many of us have heard and felt in recent years: the philanthropic advising field is fragmented. There are very few standards or ethics guiding decision-making, which is concerning given the increasingly central role advisors play in philanthropy.
One challenge that’s not always discussed is that wealth redistribution is often at odds with the standard business model for philanthropic advising. As we all know, proprietary information and revenue generation go hand in hand – I’ve even noticed it in my own work with advisors.
One way to make the math work is through bespoke services, proprietary methods, and unique fee structures, which results in a further splintering of the field and gatekeeping by proxy.
In philanthropy, we have much to learn from how advisors are responding to this moment in history. In fact, this could make a huge difference in the future of our democracy if the information and trends that philanthropic advisors have access to were readily visible. Unfortunately, given how advising works now, much of that information is likely to be trapped behind paywalls or NDAs.
From my perspective, the best way to counteract this isn’t to spend time building an infrastructure for philanthropic advising, as Garton suggested. Rather, I think we should all find ways to make it easier for donors and nonprofits to be in direct relationship with each other.
This means proactively sharing information, making philanthropic strategies and processes readily transparent, and setting these carefully kept and often hidden relationships between donors and advisors free.
Setting the field free
Early in my career, I served as the Development Director for Architecture for Humanity, a nonprofit specializing in humanitarian architecture and sustainable development. With the support of donors and a 2006 TED Prize, the organization incubated the Open Architecture Network, the world's first online open-source community dedicated to improving global living conditions through innovative and sustainable design. At the time, the network was used to support communities rebuilding after conflict, such as in Sarajevo, and after disasters in Haiti and Japan.
While the original platform is no longer accessible, its early collaborators launched offshoots of place-based design collaboratives where architects and designers can share their community-based and community-serving solutions via Creative Commons.
What started as a simple idea to crowdsource solutions and democratize design by making it free led to a global network of collaborators openly sharing designs to enable under-resourced communities to grow and thrive on their own terms.
Why can’t this logic of open-sourcing solutions apply to philanthropy?
The most prevalent fallacy I’ve heard in my work is that grantmaking is so unique to each funder that it can’t be streamlined to inform simple, standard behaviors and tools for the sector’s benefit.
If this is true, then how are organizations like JustFund and networks like the Participatory Grantmaking Community doing just that?
JustFund's Common Application™ has seen unparalleled success since its founding in 2017, streamlining the application process for nonprofits and helping funders move over $380 million to community-based and BIPOC-led organizations.
Similarly, the Participatory Grantmaking Community is removing barriers to understanding and leaning into collaborative, community-informed resource sharing through global Listservs. Community members can freely share tools and resources, adding to an already extensive knowledge base designed to expand participatory grantmaking practices. The PGM community has made hundreds of connections, trained dozens of philanthropy professionals, and directly influenced countless grantmaking strategies since its launch in 2020.
Maybe it’s time to try a new approach and apply this open source logic to philanthropic advising.
At Magic Cabinet, we’re incubating new tools that aim to meet philanthropic advisors where they are on their learning journey. One such tool is our one-on-one coaching, where our Philanthropic Solutions team will co-create training and curriculum for philanthropic advisors and offer individual support for new practitioners as they deepen their knowledge of participatory grantmaking and open new ways for donors to engage in giving.
We’ll augment this support through our grantmaking model and a dynamic portfolio of grantee organizations that are well-positioned and equipped to realize heightened impact.
It’s not just a thought exercise – it’s rooted in leveraging our tools, resources, and expert team—free of charge—to facilitate long-term behavior change in the sector. We welcome the opportunity to pursue ambitious projects alongside a community of collaborators.
Shifting the status quo
Increasingly, donors want to engage more authentically with the communities they support and know that their investments are making a meaningful impact. In my view, philanthropic advising in its current form is a barrier to that. Instead of becoming more self-sufficient over time, donors are at the mercy of a field that’s more invested in serving its own needs than in helping clients invest flexible capital in nonprofits that will deploy it to address community priorities.
What’s clear to me is that we need to move out of the echo chamber and towards a field where we’re truly advancing a rapid redeployment of wealth without gatekeepers or extractive service models. It’s time to take some risks and push for a community of collaborators who agree to incubate, ideate, and develop new paradigms for philanthropic advising in an open and transparent way.
Molly Judge is Director of Philanthropic Solutions at Magic Cabinet. Disclosure: Magic Cabinet is a financial supporter of Proximate Press.
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