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Last Thursday, March 26, I walked into the SID-US Future of Development Forum , an unconference-style event in Washington, D.C., that brought together development practitioners, former USAID and State Department officials, consultants, and NGO leaders to wrestle with one defining question: where does international development go from here? I went as a participant. I stayed someone who, in almost every conversation, found a direct echo of what I have been writing about in this

An NGO and a company shake hands. The NGO gets a press release. The company gets a CSR story. The farmers get pumps that no one maintains after year two.   Most NGO-corporate partnerships don't fail because of bad intentions . They fail because no one designed the economic logic before the relationship started. Goodwill runs out in about 18 months, right around the time the first piece of equipment breaks down, the grant cycle ends, or the company rotates its CSR lead. At tha

Most NGOs are sitting on a balance sheet they've never seen. Field data that insurers would pay for. Implementation methods that governments need. Community trust that private capital can't replicate. In this Beyond Grants post, I use my conversation with Shannon Hasel — Executive Director of Water for South Sudan — as the entry point. When I applied the asset-mapping step from my Devex profit-and-purpose framework to WFSS, what emerged wasn't theory. It was a specific invent

The development sector lacks proof that profit and purpose can coexist. It lacks the institutional courage to act on that proof. Across three decades in international development, and most recently in converting medical device companies from passive donors into strategic revenue-generating members at the G4 Alliance, where the shift produced 24% revenue growth and 90% retention, I have watched the same pattern repeat: a sector that documents successful earned-revenue models,

Should NGOs survive without rethinking how they're governed? Portfolio finance, board literacy, and three shifts to start this quarter.

For years, nonprofits have walked into corporate partnership meetings with the wrong opening line. They lead with tax deductions, CSR/ESG talking points, and heartfelt stories. They assume the company also exists to be generous and do good, following the tenets of stakeholder capitalism. Sometimes that's true. But most of the time, "do good" is not the real reason the meeting is happening. When corporations work alongside NGOs, it is rarely symbolic. Corporations partner with

When I became Executive Director of the G4 Alliance  in October 2023, the organization had never had a single corporate member. Its loss of 501(c)(3) charitable organization status before my arrival seriously hampered standard paths to grant funding and individual donations across the U.S. Because of that, relying only on membership fees fell short - far below what was needed to sustain strong advocacy, solid data infrastructure, and regular gatherings for members.  Most peop

The development sector avoids discussions of profit despite the funding crisis. How 501(c)(3) legal guardrails became cultural taboo—and why sustainable financing requires new models.

For years, I've watched colleagues in the development sector respond to funding contractions by working harder, writing more proposals, finding new donors, and chasing more grants. The logic seems sound: if the pie is shrinking, compete more fiercely for your slice. But what if the pie itself is the problem? Last week, I tuned in to a webinar by MZN International , a social consultancy that helps nonprofits and impact organizations secure funding and operate more effectively

I joined the Chronicle of Philanthropy's January 20 " Trends to Watch in 2026 " webinar, hoping to hear how we might rebuild civil society financing. Instead, I watched brilliant professionals document the crisis with precision, refining bridge loan strategies, donor bunching tactics, and compressed planning horizons. It was valuable work. But I left wondering: when do we move from documenting the shrinking pie to exploring how we might grow it? What Chronicle Got Right It is

Last week, I walked into Hallie J. Stern 's Think No More event at Arizona State University's McCain Institute  in Washington, DC, expecting a conversation about artificial intelligence, power, and systems. I walked out with something far more unsettling and far more useful: a clearer sense of responsibility. Think No More was a reckoning with the present. Over two days, technologists, historians, security experts, and critical thinkers dismantled a comforting myth many of us

Last Thursday, October 16th, I was at Devex Impact House , which offered a thought-provoking platform to engage with the shifting drivers, tensions, and opportunities in global development finance, health innovation, and multi-sector partnership models. For committed leaders who wish to propel missions on the international scene, this event highlighted not only the transitions required but also the collaborative, multilateral methods that enable sustained impact.   Reimaginin

Yesterday, October 15, at the Café Milano in Georgetown, I had the opportunity to attend Healthier Eating for Better Lives – The Italian Way, a symposium hosted by the Hera Institute. The symposium provided an opportunity to address a challenge: rethinking how we grow, cook, and distribute our food, as well as reconsidering how the fundamental principles of the Mediterranean diet can transform public health and policy in America.   A Bridge Between Science, Culture, and Human

There have been many "first times" in my professional career, and last week was my first attendance at PopTech, held at the Studio...

As Executive Director of the G4 Alliance, I learned that systems change happens when unlikely partners unite. From launching a WHO-backed surgical registry to opening our doors to corporations like Butterfly Network, I’ve seen how equity grows through data, trust, and shared purpose. This reflection shares lessons in coalition-building, digital health, and values-driven leadership for global impact.