Fingertip Giving, Humane Tech, Philanthrosophizing: 2020’s Top Buzzwords

Next year’s buzzwords will be shaped by the presidential election, continuing concerns about the role of technology in every aspect of our lives, and the increasing influence of big philanthropy. Here are 10 (plus a bonus) words to listen for as 2020 unfolds.

Billionaire

No matter what happens in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, the word has already become a buzzword for the year. Two presidential candidates are running against billionaires, and two actual billionaires have jumped into the race. According to Forbes, the moniker accurately describes only 2,153 people on the planet, so it’s weird to keep hearing about the “billionaire class.” It will be interesting to see how philanthropy responds as public use of the “b word” shifts, and it becomes shorthand for the public-policy choices that have fueled the greatest degree of income inequality in a half-century.

China

Yes, it’s weird to name a country a buzzword. Here, I’m referring specifically to the way the U.S. tech industry holds up China as the bogeyman when discussing privacy, digital rights, artificial intelligence, government surveillance, and limits on free speech and assembly. Venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, and government officials argue that if we don’t invest in creepy AI technology we’ll fall behind China in that area. The reality is that we’re moving ever closer to emulating China in practice rather than offering a distinct alternative. We should stop relying on this facile comparison and start developing regulations and technologies that protect human rights rather than pointing the finger and saying, “Because China.”

Fingertip Giving

Giving by a tap on a mobile phone app such as WeChat.

5G

This is the Faster! Better! cellular wireless standard that telecom and tech companies are promoting. The fight to build this infrastructure — including millions of new access points at street level — is already pitting nation against nation, cities against companies, and neighborhood advocates against driverless-car manufacturers. It’s a philanthropy buzzword because every community will be affected by how 5G rolls out. The physical systems that will enable 5G are literally the equivalent of plumbing and bridges for our towns and cities. The battles over equitable access, democratic governance of infrastructure, and ever-more pervasive and sensitive (and monopolistically controlled, yet publicly subsidized) systems of data hoovering are this generation’s policy and infrastructure battle. Will civil society and philanthropy show up?

Humane Tech

Have you used a screen-time or digital-wellness application on your phone to assess how much time you spend staring at the screen? If so, you can thank the Center for Humane Technology and the movement to nudge, push, beg, and threaten the tech companies to design devices that are either less manipulative or less addictive, or at least less opaque. Other actors in this movement include Purposeful and the Digital Wellness Collective.

Influence

It may be too early to claim “influence” as a replacement buzzword for “impact,” but it’s in the mix. Now that “being an influencer” is a possible career aspiration, it’s time for philanthropy and civil-society organizations to recognize the role of influence in their strategies. The good news is that thinking about influence requires thinking about power and how it works — something much of institutional philanthropy has been hesitant to do.

Surveillance Humanitarianism

The creation of digital IDs and the use of biometric and other digital tracking systems to ensure aid gets to vulnerable populations sets a dangerous precedent. Requiring biometric data, such as iris or facial scans, shifts the social contract between government officials and the governed. These choices demonstrate a desire to promote efficiency and scale over human rights. Mark Latonero, a researcher at Data & Society, catapulted the term “surveillance humanitarianism” into public awareness in his writing about the 2019 partnership between the World Food Program and Palantir.

Systems Change

Systems change is the big talk among big philanthropists. Some of them seem to think it’s about more money, some of them take seriously the science of systems, and some of them are changing the way they think about power and leadership. Some of it has teeth, and some of it is just noise.

Tokenization

In the world of cryptocurrency, a “token” is the word for a digital asset — be it money, game pieces, points, or shares — that is the thing being exchanged (a bitcoin is a token, for example). Facebook announced a move into cryptocurrency, but regulatory questions quickly drove many of its commercial partners out of the deal. Several nonprofits remain in the company’s Libra partnership. Extending nonprofit dependency on Facebook for everything from communications to financing is not a healthy trajectory for an independent civil society or democracy.

Venture Studios

These are hybrids of consulting firms, start-up accelerators, and coalitions that pool philanthropic contributions from multiple grant makers and big donors. Examples include Entanglement Studios, Blue Ridge Labs, and Creative Capital. Ever more examples of civil-society organizations that blur the boundaries between markets and philanthropy.

Bonus Buzzword

Philanthrosophizing

This is what is happening when “thought leaders” debate big-giving practices.

Lucy Bernholz is the director of the Digital Civil Society Lab and a senior research scholar at the Stanford University Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society. Her 11th annual Blueprint — a forecast for philanthropy and digital society — will be available on December 18.