Today’s global challenges—from the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine to Covid-19—are leaving people everywhere with a sense of powerlessness. Among affluent clients, this pervasive frustration is prompting some to search for ways to engage in activities resulting in meaningful, enduring change.

Effecting real change takes more than good intentions. It requires vision and expertise, both of which are common attributes of accomplished business professionals. So if you have entrepreneurial, driven clients who really want to move the needle, encouraging them to do so through philanthropy can help them overcome the feeling of powerlessness many successful people have felt in the last two years.

Often, the same qualities that make many entrepreneurs successful in their professional lives can help them in their charitable endeavors. In fact, their natural resourcefulness might help them put a refreshing new spin on their good deeds and make greater positive impact.

In the professional world, many of the most exciting and profitable enterprises come from innovation. And philanthropy is like many industries—something ripe for disruption.

There’s no shortage of challenges to tackle, and while conventional methods of giving are still effective (for example, soliciting grant applications from nonprofits and awarding funding to whomever writes the best proposal), they can have limitations.

So we suggest that highly successful people think of this new part they can play as “entrepreneurial philanthropy.” It’s an approach to solving social problems that will be especially rewarding for business leaders and change agents wanting to make a lasting impact in the world. If they have an impact, it helps them build a legacy for themselves, their families and their communities. It’s also an excellent means for younger professionals to hone their business and leadership skills.

In its simplest form, entrepreneurial philanthropy involves a leader identifying a problem or need and then using all of his or her skills and resources to fulfill the charitable mission.

6 Tips To Drive Change
Clients inspired by this notion can take six steps to get started. Think of it like a trip:

1. Conduct a pre-trip inspection: Ask your clients this: What advantages and attributes do they have that could make them successful social innovators? How are they uniquely qualified to make a difference, and where can they do it? Many small donors with business know-how and professional connections are often able to accomplish goals that would elude the staff at multi-billion-dollar foundations.

2. Turn on the ignition: What are the issues that build upon your clients’ passions and strengths? How they spend money is ultimately more important than how much they spend. They should also be able to champion causes they have direct experience with. That could help them bring attention to “orphaned” causes that have been overlooked by other philanthropists (or that are too controversial for governments to tackle).

3. Find GPS coordinates: Encourage your clients to conduct research to understand the complexities of their chosen issues. They should get input from people affected by the problem, nonprofits dedicated to a related mission, consultants and other philanthropists. They should also know who else is working on the problem, what’s already been done and what impact that work has had. When they do these things, they will avoid wasting money and might yield some important allies.

4. Check travel conditions: Success in philanthropy, just like it is in business, depends on situational factors. To what degree is the environment receptive and ready for change? If your clients’ issues are ripe for action, have them assess the social urgency of their cause and the feasibility of their efforts. They should strive to understand how much attention and support they can expect—and where more efforts might be required to increase awareness and prioritization.

5. Know the destination: Before your clients begin work or commit a single dollar, you should prompt them to define their ultimate goals in detail. If they have, say, a 20-year solution horizon or longer, advise them to think of specific mileposts that will help them mark progress. This will focus their attention and efforts on what can be reasonably accomplished and help keep them energized by working toward attainable near-term goals.

6. Use all gears: Once your clients know what they want to do, how are they going to do it? One source of help is a private foundation. Such an organization can place a wide range of resources at the clients’ disposal and help them develop innovative tactics: advocacy, media campaigns, awards and scholarships, mission-related investments, research and polling, litigation, demonstration projects, coalition building, documentary filmmaking, and direct charitable activities, among many other things. Clients have to find the approaches that match the problem, find out what stage it’s in and determine the conditions on the ground.

In sum, helping clients use their business skills and strengths to drive change can be an invigorating and rewarding process for both of you. It has the added benefit of solving social issues and improving the world.

SIDEBAR: Entrepreneur-Turned-Philanthropist Leads High-Impact Foundation
One good example of strategic startup philanthropy is the work of our client, the Seldin Haring-Smith Foundation. It’s a small foundation (its annual operating and grant-making budget is less than $1 million). But it is changing the public conversation and driving policy change in higher education. Its co-founder, Abigail Seldin, an entrepreneur who established and sold an education technology startup, draws on her business experience to direct the foundation’s mission and devise unique approaches to effecting change.

Over the past two years, the foundation has funded new research on a variety of higher education topics, including public transit gaps at community colleges and financial aid access for low-income students. With an emphasis on short time lines and topics relevant to the national conversation, the Seldin Haring-Smith Foundation can trace the impact of its grants to front-page news coverage and new bipartisan legislation. The foundation helps to keep its grant recipients focused on the big picture by eschewing the formal evaluations required by many foundations in favor of a different goal: Grant recipients are asked to write and place opinion essays in relevant media outlets to share the resulting work and ignite public dialogue.

Though some foundations work only with other nonprofits, the Seldin Haring-Smith Foundation partners with the private sector to drive impact at scale with speed. Its recent work includes the production of a new photo series on college students with Getty Images and a free financial aid appeals tool with FormSwift, a digital document company.

For a small foundation, it delivers exceptionally big impact.

Gillian Howell is head of client advisory solutions for Foundation Source, which provides comprehensive support services for private foundations. The firm works in partnership with financial and legal advisors as well as directly with individuals and families.