Deloitte Consulting LLP/ Monitor Institute

Monitor Institute by Deloitte (Deloitte) is a 25-person social impact consultancy and think tank that operates within the professional services firm Deloitte LLP. Its work blends strategy consulting, innovation and design thinking, data analytics, and futures methodologies to find new approaches to public problem solving.

This project, What's Next for Philanthropy 2020, is a multi-funder effort launched by Deloitte to help the field of philanthropy, including both institutional funders and individual donors, reflect on the state of philanthropic practice and explore new possibilities for the future. The effort engages senior foundation staff, new donors, and innovation experts at Deloitte in creatively re-examining new and existing models for giving, building on (but unconstrained by) current practices, with results published on a web site, www.futureofphilanthropy.org, devoted to "what if" questions and anticipatory approaches to philanthropy.

Deloitte, a global strategy consulting firm, runs a social impact consulting practice (SICU) that works with public, private and social sector clients to catalyze collaborative efforts that address major societal challenges. As part of a broader research agenda, Deloitte is studying when and how for-profit enterprises can serve “bottom-of-the-pyramid” (BOP) customers sustainably and at scale. The BOP segment, comprising 4 billion individuals in low-income communities that historically have been excluded from formal markets, is estimated to constitute a $5 trillion consumer market.  The proposed grant will provide support for project team staffing costs. Project findings and recommendations will illuminate effective business models and help inform improved and expanded service delivery to the BOP population in markets around the world.

The Monitor Institute is a subsidiary of Deloitte Consulting LLP, a global strategy consulting firm. The Monitor Institute was acquired by Deloitte in 2013, and specializes in work, often done on a pro bono or charitable basis, for nonprofit and philanthropic organizations. The Promoting Innovation Funding Project supports a network of funders that operate programs they call innovation funding, similar to MacArthur's Discovery Grants. The project collects and shares knowledge about innovation funding, and helps to spread ideas and stimulate discussion about it in the broader philanthropic field. The goal is to improve the practices of these programs, for the benefit of donors and the organizations they support. Grant funds will be used for project staff salaries, for meetings of project participants in 2015 and 2016, to develop a series of case studies, and to build a web site.

The Promoting Innovation Funding Project will collect and develop knowledge about innovation funding in philanthropy, and help to spread ideas about innovation funding in the broader philanthropic field. It will build a network among funders that operate innovation or R&D programs similar to MacArthur's Discovery Grants, develop a set of case studies of successful and unsuccessful innovation funding activities, and begin to map the field. It will also convene a group of innovation funders in early 2014, and publish materials about the project on its web site.