Tag: United Nations

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.

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