The New Frontiers of Philanthropy Project (NFP) was a major initiative, led by Center Director Lester Salamon and managed by William Burckart, to broaden the base of knowledge and boost awareness about an array of new actors and tools in the leveraged philanthropy and social investing arenas. The project cast a wide net in defining philanthropy as the mobilization of private resources towards social and environmental objectives. This framing included traditional grant-making but also embraced the larger world of social investing—including impact investing, microfinance, community development finance, and the new approaches to corporate social engagement.
The project produced two major volumes examining the full range of these developments, and brought these developments to the widest possible audience through an aggressive dissemination and field broadening initiative.
The overall goal of this project was to improve our ability to address the world’s growing social, economic, and environmental problems by increasing the resources available to the social entrepreneurs effectively coping with them. To that end, this project was designed to provide a clear and accessible roadmap to this emerging field—increasing its credence and traction, deepening understanding of its potential, and ultimately bringing this expanded knowledge to the attention of much larger audiences who can act on its message—including nonprofit managers, business leaders, corporate social responsibility officers, public policy experts, microfinance providers, social entrepreneurs, philanthropists, impact investors, CRA-motivated banks, private investors, accountants, investment advisors, bankers, insurance companies, pension funds, public officials, and community development finance institutions.
NFP Project Outputs
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- The initial product of this project was the 2011 book Rethinking Corporate Social Engagement, which offered a roadmap for advancing the interests of companies and the communities in which they operate.
- The primary output for the project is a major book on the New Frontiers of Philanthropy, which provides the first authoritative and comprehensive overview of these new actors and tools—deepening the knowledge base from which to inform, educate, and train. This volume, published in June 2014 by Oxford University Press is available from Amazon and oup.com. In addition, a shorter volume carrying the introduction and overview chapter by Center Director Lester Salamon is available in hardback, paperback, and Kindle editions at Amazon and oup.com.
- Finally, the project undertook an aggressive field-broadening initiative to bring the material in this book to a wide audience in easily accessible, understandable formats, presentations, and training sessions.
NFP Project Publications
For publications related to the NFP Project, please visit the publications database.
NFP Contact
For questions about the New Frontiers of Philanthropy Project, please contact former Project lead William Burckart. Burckart is currently the President of The Investment Integration Project (TIIP), a consulting services and applied research firm that provides advice, thought leadership and a turnkey solution to help foundations, endowments and other types of investors manage systemic risks and opportunities. Burckart is also a fellow of the High Meadows Institute and co-author of the book 21st Century Investing: Redirecting Financial Strategies to Drive Systems Change (Berrett-Koehler, 2021). Click here for more on his writing and work.