‘Teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime’: Why New Gen Philanthropists Should Adopt the ‘moonshot’ Strategy

Eche Munonye

Philanthropists may well be the catalyst to solving the world’s most pressing issues. But to succeed, those who dedicate their time and capital to addressing those challenges should do three things: embrace failure, be prepared to take risks and focus on a single goal. 

These elements underpin what I call moonshot philanthropy: a model of audacious leadership calling on high-net-worth individuals to invest capital, time and expertise into high-risk, early-stage ideas to achieve disruptive impact. 

Moonshot philanthropy is inspired by John F. Kennedy’s 1962 commitment to put people on the moon within a decade: a vision that was both high-risk and high-reward, fraught with potential for failure, but outweighed by the opportunity to deliver a lasting legacy.

Embracing failure to generate results 

Most entrepreneurs say that it took them nine failures before finding success with their 10th. Like any business venture, successful social innovations and impact involve an inevitable element of failure. It is learning from those failures that matters the most.

Any institution making efforts to generate social impact, such as governments, companies and charities, answers to its stakeholders, whether that is voters, taxpayers, shareholders or board members and the like. That can limit its ability to make those vital, high-risk bets. Failure under such conditions is not always viewed as a motivation to try again, but as a signal to stop. 

Philanthropists occupy a unique position: They’re able to take on the reputational and financial risks associated with testing unconventional, out-of-the-box ideas. It gives them freedom to try bold ideas, accept the consequences of setbacks, improve approaches and try again. It is how truly impactful initiatives are realized. 

By taking on risks, philanthropists have the opportunity to act as catalysts in generating change. The past century’s world-changing philanthropic initiatives have one thing in common — donors making “big bets” of $10 million or more.

In short, philanthropists’ risk capital allows them to privatize failure and socialize success for the betterment of society. 

Focus is key to impact 

As the parable goes, “Give a man a fish, he eats for a day; teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime.” The same principle applies to philanthropy. While a single donation is a pious act, it is difficult to translate that into systemic change. Concerted efforts, where philanthropists devote their time and capital to an issue close to their heart, are more impactful. 

By focusing their efforts on a single issue, philanthropists can work closely with local experts and academics, trialing ideas until the issues at hand are solved, during which time they can develop specialist knowledge and learn from past mistakes.

Philanthropists like Bill Gates have successfully built global enterprises and understand the importance of taking on calculated risks and outsourcing to experts to see maximized ROI. The list of failures over Gates’ entrepreneurial career is long — including his short-lived company Traf-O-Data. Yet the failures have been essential for Microsoft’s later successes. Applying the same approach to philanthropic ventures, if not an even bolder one, is a good recipe for large-scale impact. As Bill Gates rightly put it, “Philanthropy should be taking much bigger risks than business.’’

A contrasting example is MacKenzie Scott, who has given approximately $14 billion over the past three years to 1,600 nonprofits. Her actions are praiseworthy, no doubt. But are they the best use of $14 billion? If the same money was invested in a single cause, just think of the impact it could have made.

Both approaches are valid, and I admire the quantum speed of Scott’s donations. In my opinion, however, her approach has made a big, temporary splash, where the ripples of impact fade, whereas a moonshot effort has the power to change the tide. 

This is why I will continue to applaud the destination approach of Mr. Africapitalism, Tony Elumelu who found a cause in tackling poverty across the African sub-region. He may have failed in the early stage of the planning, but its been ten good years of lifting African youths from poverty through the provision of seed capital, turning several of them into venture capitalists today.

Indeed, the more enduring approach for philanthropism should be, teach a man to fish, so he never goes hungry again.