bird’s eye view

Three hundred thousand years ago, our earliest ancestors gathered to honor their dead. We have the physical evidence — the ritual sites, the bone arrangements, the careful repetition that says we did this together, and we did it again. That, anthropologists tell us, is the first human algorithm.

Three hundred thousand years ago, our earliest ancestors gathered to honor their dead. We have the physical evidence — the ritual sites, the bone arrangements, the careful repetition that says we did this together, and we did it again. That, anthropologists tell us, is the first human algorithm.

Our team is expanding! Wingspan Philanthropy is pleased to welcome Lesley Loftis to the team as our SVP of Strategy.  

I was removed from an advisory council I helped build — quietly, without notice, without conversation. I found out by stumbling across the absence where my name used to be. The reason? My views don’t align with the organization. And then came the line I can’t stop thinking about: “Nobody looks at that.” As if invisibility were the same thing as integrity. This is not just my story — it’s a precise illustration of the sector’s truth-telling problem.

While we debate methodology and argue about the future of our sector on LinkedIn, something else is happening. In a warehouse at 4:30 in the morning, someone is sorting canned goods. In a shelter, someone is listening — without flinching — to a story they’ve heard a thousand times. These are the people I want to talk about. Not the thought leaders or consultants. The people too busy doing the work to talk about it.

This week, a jury found Meta and YouTube liable for knowingly addicting a young woman to their platforms. The finding wasn’t negligence — it was malice. And it made me think about the nonprofit sector. I’ve been in rooms where using these platforms made sense on a spreadsheet. But this verdict made me ask: what does relationship actually mean when algorithms promise scale?

There’s a word we’ve been using carelessly for a long time: “philanthropy.” We attach it to pledge campaigns and gala dinners and press releases announcing nine-figure commitments. But the Greek root means love of humanity—not love of leverage, not love of legacy. When billions sit parked in private foundations while working charities wait, that’s not philanthropy. That’s reputation laundering with a charitable wrapper.

There is nothing quite like New York City in early spring. I arrived for two days with the leadership and board of Girls Inc., and what I witnessed — I have been praying for it since the advent of AI and the chaos in individual giving. A leader who chose intention over efficiency, humanity over data.

Every time this country has fractured — the Depression, Vietnam, September 11th — it wasn’t the government that stitched us back together. It was the sector we still treat as an afterthought. I know this because I was there, staffing a Red Cross respite center in New Jersey after 9/11 — and what I watched happen in that room changed everything for me. Read why I believe nonprofits are the only force that can heal what’s broken right now.

You almost can’t answer this question without other people. It pulls people toward each other. It requires shared imagination. You need someone else’s vision to expand your own. You need the person across the table to dream out loud so you can dream louder. The question is inherently collaborative.