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 :

Humanitarian Deadlock in Northeastern Syria ?

Residents of the Sahlat al Banat camp lining up in front of the tent. © Juliette Elie

Under the already heavy sun of a September morning, about fifty people wait among the dusty tents of the Sahlat al Banat camp in northeastern Syria. As the vehicle arrives, a murmur rises in front of the tent: everyone pleads their case, hoping to be registered on the list of one hundred medical consultations scheduled for the coming days.

Since 2018, more than 2,000 families have taken refuge on the outskirts of the vast landfill site of Raqqa. From the towns of Deir ez-Zor or Maadan, they fled successive offensives that put an end to several years of Islamic State control. Over time, shelters have multiplied: as far as the eye can see, sheets of fabric, blankets, and tarpaulins—sometimes marked with the UNHCR logo—bear witness to the gradual withdrawal of humanitarian aid. A heavy odor hangs over the camp, a mix of waste and burning plastic that clings to the air and to the clothes. Here, children sort through mountains of garbage, searching for pieces of metal they can sell for a few cents. For many, it is the only means of survival.

Naji Al Matrood, teacher with the NGO Solinfo. © Juliette Elie

For several years now, we at SOLINFO have been running psychosocial support workshops for about a hundred children every month. For an hour or two, they can escape their daily lives and simply be children again—no longer worrying about how many scraps of metal they collected or how many Syrian pounds they managed to earn. Under this tent, teacher Naji Al Matrood constantly imagines new ways to capture the children’s attention and restore to them the lightness of their age.

My role as a doctor and the association’s medical coordinator strengthens this support by providing both medical care and preventive action, including hygiene awareness sessions and the distribution of kits containing essential items: toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, nail clippers, and disinfectant solution.

These moments spent with the children also reveal the daily lives of the men and women living in an extremely degraded environment. The dust and the smell permeate everything. The children often arrive barefoot, their clothes dirty or torn. The most common diseases tell their own story: scabies, diarrhea, and malnutrition are almost constant.

We conducted a nutritional survey of one hundred children in the camp, and the results are alarming: more than half show signs of undernutrition—53%, one third of them severely malnourished and two thirds moderately. In concrete terms, this means that most of the children examined are not growing normally: their weight is insufficient for their height or age, which can lead to bone fragility, developmental delays, edema, and greater vulnerability to infections. These data confirm the seriousness of the situation and illustrate the lack of sustainable nutritional programs in the region.

Children of the Sahlat al Banat camp © Juliette Elie

Dangerous Budget Cuts for Relief Efforts

These figures are not an exception; they reflect a broader reality—the humanitarian deadlock in northeastern Syria. Since early 2025, budget restrictions decided by Washington have led to the suspension of many USAID-funded programs. In practice, numerous international NGOs have seen their funding cut by 40%, forcing them to reduce staff and scale down their projects in the region.

On the ground, the consequences are visible: many NGOs have withdrawn, projects have been halted, and staff remain in limbo. Local NGOs are trying to compensate for the absence of international actors, but they lack the logistical and financial means that previously gave strength to the humanitarian apparatus. This paradigm shift now highlights the responsibility of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), which finds itself alone in front of camps it can neither manage nor close.

In this fragmented humanitarian landscape, Damascus is gradually regaining control, starting with the administrative level: from now on, all UN agencies must submit their project proposals to the Syrian government before any field action. At the same time, international NGOs wishing to collaborate with the United Nations must register with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, an obligatory step to obtain legal authorization to operate. This ministry imposes long, redundant, and sometimes arbitrary procedures.

Local NGOs, for their part, are subject to a similar process: they must obtain registration with the Ministry of Social Affairs, which reviews their statutes and funding sources. This supervision allows the government to filter and channel aid toward the areas it deems a priority.

Despite these constraints, the Health Authority Office (HAO)—the AANES’s health body—tries to maintain a parallel coordination system. Acting as a “Ministry of Health,” it manages hospitals, primary health centers, and coordinates humanitarian activities of both international and local NGOs to best respond to the population’s needs.

Beyond the humanitarian emergency, northeastern Syria has for several months been awaiting negotiations between the new government led by Ahmed Al Charaa and the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria. In early October, several meetings took place, driven by U.S. efforts to maintain a fragile balance between their Kurdish allies and a Syrian regime seeking regional normalization.

Like the Druze and Alawite communities, Kurdish representatives appear to be advocating for a federal modelguaranteeing administrative, cultural, and security autonomy. Damascus, on the other hand, favors the establishment of a centralized state and the integration of the various armed groups.

During my mission, clashes broke out in Aleppo’s Kurdish neighborhoods of Ashrafieh and Sheikh Maqsoud, opposing local units to pro-government factions. On October 8, a ceasefire was negotiated between the two parties, restoring a fragile calm to the city. These episodes reflect the fragility of coexistence between the regime and Kurdish forces and recall the community violence recently inflicted on the Druze and Alawites.

Even within Kurdish circles, opinions diverge. Some express cautious optimism, seeing a chance for recognition or even the promise of a federal state. Others, more disillusioned, fear renewed conflict, the disenchantment of a people exhausted by war. “Talks will never succeed as long as Damascus remains torn both internally and by its foreign sponsors,” says a local official in Qamishli.

Hope for Peace Above All

On the ground, this political stalemate is ever-present and translates into constant security fragility. Roads are closed or blocked by makeshift checkpoints; local partners tell rumors of attacks, kidnappings, and revenge killings—all of which contribute to the population’s sense of insecurity. The fear of the Islamic State still lingers in some villages where sporadic attacks occur.

Yet, we encountered no incidents during our mission. Movements took place without hindrance, and the region remains relatively stable. This observation reveals a fragile stability, where life continues despite everything.

Northeastern Syria today is a humanitarian gray zone, where neither war nor peace truly prevails. International attention has turned elsewhere, cameras have moved on, and displaced populations—now invisible—are rarely mentioned. Yet life here remains marked by extreme precariousness. In Raqqa, the national hospital still stands, supported almost entirely by NGOs. Care is provided free of charge, allowing the population to access a minimal level of healthcare.

Like many humanitarian actors in the region, we work exclusively with local NGOs—the only ones who truly know the realities on the ground. Mustapha, our country director, and Driss, our project manager, embody this quiet resistance and remain committed despite the uncertainty weighing on the current political situation.

I will return soon to continue this modest but essential work for those who have nothing left—except the hope of peace above all.

Juliette Elie.

Medical Consultations in Sahlat al Banat

Docteur Juliette ELIE :

After earning a doctorate in medicine from Université Paris Diderot and a master’s degree in research on inflammation and inflammatory diseases, Dr. Juliette Elie works as an associate practitioner at Necker–Enfants Malades Hospital in Paris.

She currently serves as a volunteer humanitarian doctor within the NGO SOLINFO, chaired by Edouard Lagourgue, where she oversees medical projects, particularly in the fields of nutrition, community health, and support to displaced populations.

Her commitment reflects an approach that combines scientific rigor, field action, and support for local actors to sustainably strengthen health capacities in crisis zones

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