Philanthropy’s Role in Helping Tomorrow’s Workers Excel

A new report by the Aspen Insti­tute exam­ines the role of phil­an­thropy in help­ing tomorrow’s low- and mod­er­ate-income work­ers get ahead amid a shift­ing employ­ment landscape.

Draw­ing from inter­views with more than a dozen phil­an­thropic lead­ers, the report — Phil­an­thropy and the Future of Work — presents sev­er­al rec­om­men­da­tions for increas­ing eco­nom­ic oppor­tu­ni­ty, including:

• sup­port­ing research that illu­mi­nates trans­for­ma­tions in work;
• rais­ing aware­ness about the chang­ing eco­nom­ic landscape;
• high­light­ing bar­ri­ers to sta­bil­i­ty and mobil­i­ty; and
• invest­ing in local com­mu­ni­ties to sup­port inno­va­tion, lead­er­ship and sys­tems change.

“Casey has been com­mit­ted to increas­ing work, edu­ca­tion­al and job-train­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for years, and we must con­tin­ue adapt­ing our strate­gies to keep pace with the chang­ing econ­o­my if we want to cre­ate bet­ter out­comes for low-income fam­i­lies,” said Alli­son Ger­ber, a senior asso­ciate who over­sees the Foundation’s invest­ments in work­force devel­op­ment. ​“We can use our role as fun­ders to spot­light the chang­ing land­scape and sup­port com­mu­ni­ties as they devel­op new mod­els to equip work­ers with the knowl­edge and expe­ri­ence they need to thrive in the job market.”

The world of work will con­tin­ue to evolve in response to tech­no­log­i­cal advances, the chang­ing polit­i­cal cli­mate and eco­nom­ic trends, and phil­an­thropy can play an impor­tant role address­ing the chal­lenges and oppor­tu­ni­ties this future presents.

Read the full report