Report by Laura Maher and Stefaan Verhulst: “Any of the defining challenges of our time, from climate change and democratic resilience to public health, AI governance, and systemic inequity, defy linear solutions. They are interconnected, constantly evolving, and often contested in how they are understood and framed.
Yet philanthropy, despite its ambition to address these challenges, remains largely organized around linear theories of change, predefined deliverables, and evaluation frameworks which often assume that problems can be sufficiently understood in advance and progress measured against predetermined outcomes. While essential for accountability, these approaches can leave little room for questioning assumptions, exploring uncertainty, or adapting as new insights emerge.
This tension becomes particularly striking in the age of AI. As our capacity to generate “answers” expands exponentially, the real constraint may no longer be access to information or solutions, but our ability to determine which questions matter, whose perspectives inform them, and when they need to change.
Questions are not neutral. They shape what gets funded, which communities are heard, what evidence is collected, and which possibilities are explored. They are agenda-setting devices that influence not only how problems are addressed, but which problems receive attention in the first place.
For philanthropy, this suggests a shift: from treating questions as a preliminary step toward funding answers to recognizing inquiry as an essential investment in its own right. Supporting the capacity to formulate, test, and revisit questions could make philanthropy more responsive to complexity, more inclusive in setting priorities, and ultimately more effective in generating lasting change…(More)”.
