Philanthropy and the Social Economy: Blueprint 2014

In an era of associations of associations and billion- euro (or dollar) foundations, it is easy to lose sight of the most basic level of assembly – two or more private individuals coming together to do something that benefits others (and possibly themselves as well). Doing this – whether to feed the hungry, clean a neighborhood park, perform a play, advocate for better bicycle infrastructure, or protest major government initiatives – requires a certain degree of confidence that we control our choices, that we are not being watched, and that we are, in fact, making private choices to act publicly.

The list of top ten 2013 buzzwords is intended to capture the gist of the jargon in the year gone by and serve as a guide to terms you’re likely to hear in the next 12 months. Some are meaningful; some are satirical. Some may have lasting implications and be a catchphrase that summarizes an important idea; others will pass by as quickly as they came. Regardless of how you feel about these buzzwords, don’t confuse my inclusion of a particular term as an endorsement or rejection of the idea. I’m the eavesdropper and rapporteur.

Finally, what are the roles of data in digital civil society? When something is digitized, it is translated into binary code – literally, strings of ones and zeros. It doesn’t matter what the original was made out of – music, text, images, human tissue, or even solid steel; in digital form, everything becomes ones and zeros.

What can we count on happening in the next 12 months? Here’s a list of predictions to watch over the next year.

Benefit corporation. A commercial corporation that charters social and/or environmental benefits into its incorporation documents. Developed in 2008, laws allow benefit corporations in about 1/3 of all U.S. states. There is a branded version called a B Corporation.

The second area of digital civil society that warrants consideration involves questions of ownership and governance. This is particularly important in the social economy, where the defining principles include how the enterprises are governed and owned.

Digital civil society is an emergent frame that helps us consider the ways that shifting our civil society actions and behaviors into digital environments will matter in the long term. Each time individuals take civil action with digital tools – texting donations, sharing videos, mapping information on open source platforms for others to use, snapping and sharing photos of protests or movements – we invent digital civil society. The challenge for all of us over the next several years will be to also invent “the rules by which we use these new tools.”

Why does it matter if we expand our lens from nonprofits and philanthropy to the social economy? Simply put, only the social economy frame captures the full set of options for both donors (those with the financial resources) and doers (entrepreneurs and organization executives).

In addition to the big shifts that matter and my 2014 predictions, there are several “predictable unpredictables.” Several of the wildcards I included in this list last year did come to pass, including: