Philanthropic Foundations Strategizing Towards Sustainable Development Goals: Systematic Review, Framework Proposal and Policy Implications

This paper examines how adopting UN 2030 Agenda’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as strategic objectives shapes foundations’ strategic practices, i.e. the ways they frame and try to contribute to sustainability challenges, design and implement interventions, and evaluate and account for their impacts vis-à-vis relevant stakeholders. Albeit an increasing number of foundations report alignment with the SDG framework, more evidence of its strategic implications is needed. Towards that end, a comprehensive review of academic and grey literature (2015–2024) is combined with a multiple case study. Innovative strategic practices towards SDGs by Canadian foundations are identified based on extreme case sampling. Data are collected from multiple sources, including 11 in-depth interviews with experts, representatives and top managers from 3 national networks and 4 foundations. Findings suggest that the more socially innovative practices have the potential to impact both the organizational and interorganizational levels, and ultimately public policy. Practices that are typical of strategic philanthropy with a social innovation and policy orientation are delved into, and the importance of framing as a strategic practice is emphasized. They span not only the value proposition, logic model and accountability of foundations, but also interorganizational practices (e.g. convening, collaboration, scaling up, in or out, or advocacy) that are typical of multistakeholder emergent or ecosystem strategies in the face of complexity. Findings from the perspective of foundation networks shed light on isomorphic interorganizational diffusion of strategic practices and frame alignment processes. Finally, implications for foundation policy are explored, unveiling the utility of SDG-oriented framings of sustainability challenges for foundations to influence the broader system where they operate by removing strategic constraints. Our contribution to the philanthropic literature is a broader and more nuanced vision of strategic philanthropy practices in the face of complex, systemic challenges, where traditional funding roles (e.g. supplementation) are substituted by innovative roles that better align foundations’ practices with their self-perceived functions and external role expectations, reinforcing their legitimacy in the public arena.