Tag: Philanthropy

Philanthropy in times of Chaos

© WFP/Arete/Ali Yunes – Smoke and dust rises in the aftermath of airstrikes in a southern suburb of Beirut, the capital of Lebanon.

Learning to Navigate a World That Has Lost Its West

For a long time, the nonprofit and philanthropic sector operated in a world that was imperfect but relatively predictable. Crises existed, of course, but they seemed localized, temporary, and manageable. Public funding remained generally predictable, multilateralism provided a stabilizing framework, and generosity grew slowly but surely.

That world is, if not disappearing, at least changing rapidly.

Over the past decade, a succession of shocks—an increase in terrorist attacks, a pandemic, high-intensity wars, climate change, geopolitical upheaval, and democratic polarization—has cracked the very foundations of this balance.

What many today describe as “chaos” is not merely an accumulation of crises. It is a regime change.

For the humanitarian sector, philanthropy, and the nonprofit world, this rupture is brutal. Budgets are shrinking, trade-offs are becoming more severe, and economic models are being called into question. But reducing the situation to a crisis of resources would be a mistake in analysis. What we are experiencing runs deeper: a crisis of models, of perceptions, of certainties.

The End of a Predictable World

The multilateral system, long viewed as an unshakable foundation, exemplifies this shift. The United Nations and major humanitarian agencies are now facing an unprecedented contraction of their resources. The withdrawal or massive reduction of certain government funding—particularly from the United States—is resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths, thousands of job cuts, program closures, and the abandonment of programs.

On the ground, this translates into impossible choices: prioritizing certain populations at the expense of others, raising intervention thresholds, and accepting to “save what can be saved” rather than addressing overall needs. A logic of triage is taking hold, not out of cynicism, but out of necessity. The humanitarian sector, for example, is entering a state of permanent war economy.

This reality is not without resonance for the French nonprofit sector. Here too, the end of the illusion of stability is palpable. The number of donors is declining, even as the average donation increases. Generosity is becoming concentrated, institutionalized, more strategic, and more demanding. Organizations must cope with increased volatility in resources and heightened competition, not only among causes but for attention itself.

We are thus shifting from a world of planning to a world of navigation. From a world where we mapped out five-year trajectories to an environment marked by constant crossroads, enduring uncertainty, and successive shocks.

27.02.2025 – The end of USAID, Washington, DC USA © Ted Eytan

The Transformation of Generosity

Faced with this instability, two opposing reactions threaten the sector. The first is nostalgia: the hope—often implicit—for a “return to normal,” for the restoration of previous balances, for a mechanical rebound in the curves. The second is shock: the temptation to believe that everything is collapsing, that generosity will dry up under the weight of fear, recession, and self-absorption.

These two interpretations fall short. For what we are observing is neither a mere hiccup nor an outright collapse. It is a transformation.

Generosity is not disappearing; it is changing form. It is becoming more selective, more embodied, more attentive to real impact. It is shifting from institutions to people, from systems to stories, from structures to embodied causes. It is becoming, in the noble sense, more political.

This shift is accompanied by a profound change in approach. Delegated philanthropy, where organizations were entrusted to act on our behalf, is gradually giving way to a philanthropy of shared responsibility. Donors, patrons, and citizens want to understand, participate, and engage in new ways. They expect consistency, transparence and meaning.

A cash transfer program led by UNICEF in Mauritania in 2021

From Performance to Resilience

In this context, the central issue is no longer just performance, but resilience.

Being resilient is not just about resisting. It is about being able to withstand shocks, adapt, and transform without losing one’s raison d’être. Whereas older models prioritized linear growth and optimization, the world ahead demands agility, hybridization, and cooperation.

In practical terms, this means breaking out of silos, forging more alliances, pooling certain functions, and diversifying resources. It also requires rethinking governance, relationships with stakeholders, and the role of communities, volunteers, and local regions.

In a world saturated with causes and information, the ability to tell a story that is accurate, compelling, and inspiring becomes a strategic lever. Being morally right is no longer enough. We must be understandable, appealing, and credible. The question is no longer just “how much have we raised?” but “what movement have we created? What coalition have we built? What transformation have we made possible?”

Navigating Rather Than Enduring

History shows that major reinventions of solidarity rarely arise from a place of comfort. They emerge from cracks, during periods of turmoil, when old frameworks no longer hold. The nonprofit sector was not born out of stability; it was born out of chaos.

We are once again at one of those pivotal moments. Not on the eve of a collapse, but on the threshold of a restructuring. A demanding, uncomfortable, yet potentially fruitful restructuring.

Emerging from this period stronger than before will not mean restoring the models of the past. It will mean accepting a shift in mindset. To shift from a transactional mindset to one of commitment, from a project-based mindset to a trajectory-based one, from an organizational mindset to an ecosystem-based one.

Chaos is not merely a threat. It is also a revelation. It lays bare our dependencies, forcing us to distinguish the essential from the incidental, to question our goals rather than merely our tools.

Learning to navigate a world without a compass is undoubtedly the major challenge facing philanthropy today. Not to simply endure the turbulence, but to transform this period of uncertainty into a defining moment.

Article based on the opening and closing remarks from Good Week 2026, organized by Force For Good

Antoine Vaccaro.

President of Force for Good.

Antoine Vaccaro :

He holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Sciences—Management of the Non-Profit Sector—from Paris-Dauphine University. After a career with major nongovernmental organizations and communications firms, such as the Fondation de France, Médecins du Monde, and TBWA, he now serves as president of Force For Good and Cerphi (Center for the Study and Research on Philanthropy).

He also serves in various administrative roles within associations and has co-founded several professional organizations promoting private funding for causes of public interest, including the Association Française des Fundraisers, Euconsult, and the ESSEC Chair in Philanthropy. He has also contributed to the drafting of the code of ethics for organizations that rely on public generosity.

Finally, he is the author of several books and articles on philanthropy and fundraising.

Discover the other articles of this edition :

French Generosity, cuvée 2020, bubble or no bubble?

One year, “already”, but what a long and heavy year it has been. For some of us it has been dramatic. Bereavements, illness, the impact of the economic and social crisis with consequences that are still difficult to estimate.

And in this slump, the generosity of the French continues to grow, as it does during each humanitarian, climatic or health disaster.

In April 2020, I put forward the hypothesis of a bubble of generosity, as with every disaster, with a singularity: unlike tsunamis, earthquakes or other consequences of conflicts, this crisis also affects the whole population, including the one that usually donates. Would the latter behave as usual or would they withdraw, considering that it was up to the public authorities to take on such a challenge?

Well, it has to be said that a bubble of generosity has formed and that the French have mobilised themselves vigorously. The first indicators show a 20% growth in generosity from the general public (vs. -10% of GDP) and we are waiting for the figures from corporate sponsorship, which should not be outdone.

We still need to refine these figures and take a closer look at where this generosity has gone?

Logically enough, we might have thought that donations would be concentrated, “selfishly”, towards structures in the health and medical research sector, at the heart of the fight against the pandemic, which are able to help us.

But this is not the case. We were able to identify three circles of beneficiaries with varying degrees of resources.

The first circle, as seen above, is all the causes linked to the fight against Covid.

A second circle concerns organisations that help vulnerable and fragile populations, such as Secours Populaire, Secours Catholique, Emmaüs, the French Red Cross and the Salvation Army, to which should be added the NGOs that intervene abroad, such as MSF, MDM, ACF and HI.

This is one of the main characteristics of French and European (or at least continental) generosity, unlike the powerful American philanthropy, which gives mainly to causes that benefit its own donors.

Finally, a third circle, which concerns cultural organisations, heritage protection or various sporting activities that have been hit hard by this epidemic, has received little support because they are far removed from the concerns of the French during this period.

As in every crisis, there are winners and losers, and the organisations that suffer the most are those that are not very well known or that do not have a great capacity to solicit donors.

This bubble is also the result of the incredible inventiveness and vivacity of organisations of all sizes to solicit the generosity of the French. To traditional fundraising methods have been added innovative forms such as gaming, online auctions and solidarity lotteries, which have flourished with impressive success.

5th edition of the Z Event to benefit Amnesty International in October 2020. The event was a success with more than 50 hours of streaming and 5,724,377 euros raised.

The explosion of these initiatives is helped by the digitalisation of fundraising and payment methods.

If at the end of 2019, we were worried about the weak rebound of digital donations over the last two or three years, with a growth rate of more than 230%, the transfer to this vector of generosity has finally happened and we will not go back.

Civil society has shown great resilience. I mentioned Seneca in a recent editorial in the CerPhi news letter. I recalled that the philosopher had developed, in seven books, a Stoic analysis of the notions of ethics, gratitude, ingratitude and beneficence, and offered numerous tips for granting, receiving and returning benefits appropriately.

But his point is to assert the necessity of gratitude and benevolence, which for him are the most powerful bonds in human society.

In this time of pandemic and the incredible rupture that such a crisis constitutes, the need for gratitude and benevolence becomes a categorical imperative.

The Telethon 2020 raffle raised €2,175,850 with Stars Solidaires.

As we emerge from this crisis, which we hope will soon be over, how will the generosity of French companies and households evolve?

This year, which has seen half of the world’s population living at the rhythm of stop-and-go sequences, will impact our societies for a long time to come, on an economic, social, political and even geopolitical level.

The consequences are not yet fully known and very clear, but we cannot ignore this reality for long and go on as if nothing had happened.

A few economic sectors seem to be flying over this disaster. The world’s stock markets are back to their February 2020 levels and everything seems to be going well in the best of all possible worlds.

This disconnection between finance and the real economy, which has been denounced by many, adds to the obscene nature of the situation. Many sectors of the economy are on their knees and the stock markets are once again flying from record to record on the mountain of debt that countries are accumulating to avoid another global crash and that will have to be repaid year after year.

The philanthropic sector has also been spared by this crisis for the time being, but it is emerging ever stronger, as it does in the case of any major crisis or humanitarian disaster, given the explosion in social needs and the ever greater need to express generosity.

For the general public, its main contributors are senior citizens, the vast majority of whom are retired, who, having received their pensions as they do every month, are convinced that their savings are still protected and continue their unfailing support for associations and foundations.

On the large philanthropy side, donors who are part of the 1% who hold 50% of the wealth of all humanity, continue their philanthropic commitment, because they understand that their absence from the bedside of the most disadvantaged could come back to them in a boomerang.

The future of philanthropy may look bright, but there are some warning signs.

  • On the corporate side, despite the underlying trend of philanthropy, CSR and “good”, the economic sector, confronted with multiple challenges, is at risk of muffling its societal commitments.
  • As for large-scale philanthropy, the taxation of the highest incomes and assets is almost inevitable, which could lead to the defection of certain high taxpayers, who consider that their tax is already a significant contribution to the general interest.
  • Finally, will the general public resist for long if their savings and income collapse as the crisis worsens?

Let’s not play the Cassandra and bet on a positive outcome for the whole sector.

Antoine Vaccaro, President of CerPhi

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Who is Antoine Vaccaro ?

Antoine Vaccaro holds a doctorate in organisational science – Management of non-market economies, Paris-Dauphine, 1985.

After a professional career in large non-governmental organisations and communication groups: Fondation de France, Médecins du Monde, TBWA; he chairs the CerPhi (Centre for Study and Research on Philanthropy) Force For Good and the Fund-raising Lab. He holds various volunteer positions within associations and foundations and is also co-founder of several professional organisations promoting private funding of general interest causes: “Association Française des fundraisers, Comité de la charte de déontologie des organismes faisant appel à la générosité publique, Euconsult, La chaire de Philanthropie de l’Essec, 2011”.

He has published various books and articles on philanthropy and fund-raising.