Philanthropy Can Be Like Severance

Watching Severance and reading Emma Holten’s new book on the "care" economy made me think of the similarities between the show and philanthropy. We who work in the field (and nonprofit board members!) have "Outies" living in a chaotic, unpredictable, random, organic world.

But, sometimes, we walk into our foundation offices and, once we cross the threshold, our "Innies" treat the world as mechanistic and systematic, with our theories of change, the moving of a few numbers around, and the belief that money and a program should solve all the problems.

What if we started with the goal of ensuring our work was centered on human flourishing?

True philanthropy means creating pathways for everyone to pursue lives of meaning and purpose—regardless of circumstance.

What would philanthropy look like if we brought more of our "Outie" wisdom and our “lived experiences” into our foundation work?​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​