Blueprint 2018 – Predictions

By Lucy Bernholz

January 10, 2018, Stanford, CA

The year that’s passed turned out to be quite a ride for philanthropy both big and small. Billions in new philanthropic dollars from a handful of donors at one end of the spectrum, plus billions more in crowdfunding across the globe. Regulatory provocations on dark money and charity. Global migration and natural disasters provide ample opportunity for civil society and philanthropy to take action. What’s in store for the year ahead? Here are a few predictions for 2018 – the full list is available in Philanthropy and Digital Civil Society: Blueprint 2018.

Global

FinTech (financial technology) will be a shiny new interest area for philanthropy in 2018.
Voice-activated giving (“Alexa, donate $10 to the Community Disaster Fund”) will make headlines.
The European Union will become the global standard bearer for digital privacy policy. Nonprofits everywhere will examine their privacy practices to abide by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

United States

Transparency advocates will demand regulation of political advertising on the Web and social media networks. They won’t get it.
Tech companies will increase their philanthropy and political giving as their reputations suffer.
Team communications tools that are slowly replacing internal corporate e-mail will be hacked, drawing as much attention as e-mail dumps did in 2016.

2018 Wild Cards (Surprising, unlikely things that just might happen)

Britain won’t Brexit.
The rate of growth in global carbon production will slow significantly.
Countries will begin competing to take in and take care of millions of refugees.

P.S. If you didn't catch Predict-a-Palooza on January 11, watch a recording of this virtual roundtable of experts, scholars, and practitioners as they identify key trends and share predictions for 2018, including insights from Blueprint!

Editor’s Note: We were delighted to partner with Lucy on publishing the Blueprint for the past several years, and are still avid followers of her predictions! Explore past editions on GrantCraft here.

Lucy Bernholz is a Senior Research Scholar at Stanford PACS and Director of the Digital Civil Society Lab. She is the author of Philanthropy and Digital Civil Society: Blueprint 2018, the ninth annual forecast.

Lucy Bernholz has been working in, consulting to, and writing about philanthropy and the social economy since 1990. The Huffington Post calls her a "philanthropy game changer" and Fast Company magazine named her blog Philanthropy2173 "Best in Class." She is a visiting scholar at Stanford University's Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society. Lucy earned a B.A. from Yale University and a M.A. and Ph.D. from Stanford University. On Twitter she's known as @p2173 and she posts most of her articles, speeches, and presentations online at www.lucybernholz.com where you can also find her blog, Twitter feed, and books.