Understanding Problems, Their Causes, and Approaches to Solutions

Understand the problem you’re trying to solve through your giving, so you can support the right sorts of nonprofits.

Having articulated a focus area, you may be tempted to jump right into finding organizations that operate in that space. However, nonprofit organizations may deploy very different approaches to solving social problems, and it’s helpful to begin with a good understanding of the problem you’re trying to solve through your philanthropy. This chapter covers two vital questions:

• How can I define the problem that I’m trying to solve to generate a good range of solutions?
• What types of approaches can I fund that might solve the problem?