Ideas That Move Impact Forward

Global summits generate bold commitments on climate, health, education, and development. Yet years later, progress remains uneven and trust continues to erode. The challenge is not a lack of ambition or intent. It is a persistent gap between global promises and the systems required to deliver them. This piece examines why multilateral commitments so often stall at execution, and what it would take to translate pledges into durable impact.

AI’s real promise in government regulation is not speed. It is humanity. By offloading repetitive tasks and sharpening insight, AI can free regulators to focus on what truly matters: judgment, trust, and care. This piece explores how technology can help build a regulatory state that listens better and acts earlier.

Higher education is at a strategic inflection point. As learner demographics shift, workforce expectations evolve, and public trust in institutions erodes, colleges and universities face a choice: optimize legacy models or fundamentally redesign how learning is delivered, supported, and valued. This piece explores why moving from institution-centric models to learner-centered ecosystems is no longer optional, and what it will take to do so responsibly.

Education systems are under unprecedented pressure. Demographic decline, increasingly diverse student needs, and constrained public budgets are destabilizing assumptions about demand. At the same time, stakeholders expect measurable outcomes and efficient use of resources. The question for leaders is no longer whether to control costs. It is whether institutions are structurally capable of making coherent tradeoffs under sustained stress. Those who cannot risk strategic drift, operational inefficiency, and diminished impact.

Foundations are funding more initiatives, engaging additional partners, and deploying diverse forms of capital than ever before. Yet social outcomes are stagnant, in part because foundation leaders are uncertain of their fundamental role.

A growing number of foundations are moving beyond traditional grantmaking toward venture-like capital strategies, deploying funds into for-profit enterprises in pursuit of scalable social impact. This shift reflects deeper questions about effectiveness, sustainability, and the role of philanthropic capital in addressing complex global challenges. This piece explores why the boundary between philanthropy and investment is blurring, and what this evolution demands of both funders and enterprises.