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Five months into its second term, the Trump administration has cut billions of dollars in healthcare, foreign aid, and other social spending. The presidents proposed budget seeks to eliminate more than $160 billion in additional discretionary spending. The result of these cuts will be an onslaught of need across U.S. and global communities. In our lifetime, there hasnt been a greater opportunity for philanthropy to make an impact. Every philanthropic family and foundation has its own idiosyncrasies. At the same time, a few widespread and unconstructive habits continue to hold the sector back from having the impact needed in this moment. Donors are too risk-averse in how they approach their giving All donors want to ensure impact. But for many, this desire to steward resources effectively leads to a cumbersome, overly cautious approach that misses innovative opportunities. The most pressing problems we are facing as a society are thorny and multilayered, made more so by our current political environment. These problems require new, innovative solutions. That means taking more risks on untested ideas and organizations. Because of this dynamic, such organizations, usually headed by community leaders, are most often underserved. Donors tend to concentrate their grantmaking on a handful of blue chip organizations or on ones that have had the time to accumulate significant evidence on the effectiveness of their approach. A track record of success is of course great, but donors who dont also consider new approaches for which there is not yet evidence are unintentionally stifling innovation. Calibrating risk to incentivize both positive outcomes and innovation is essential. Donors are too risk-tolerant after grants have been made Once donors commit to a plan, too many are slow to change courseeven when conditions have changed or their approach is falling short. In philanthropy, there is a fundamental difference between leading with ideology versus leading with impact. Many philanthropists commit to an ideology around how to address a particular problem and funnel time, attention, and resources into their chosen approach without taking an honest and hard look at whats working and what isnt. For some, this can be about wanting to honor a particular philanthropys legacy or reputation. Others are held back by the all-too-human desire to avoid failure. But in a lot of these cases, too many philanthropists are sacrificing impact to save face. The savviest donors avoid this by being open about their failures, continually questioning their own biases, and diversifying the voices they are listening to in an effort to bring a more critical lens to their work. Donors dont think creatively enough about how to make an impact outside of giving While check-writing is the core of philanthropic work, all donorsindividuals, families, foundationshave an array of additional ways they can impact the issues they care about. Too few are using those tools. One example of a highly effective tool is advocacy. Savvy donors engaging in advocacy recognize that the policy conditions and public funding related to the issues they care about are incredibly impactful and can create leverage for the dollars they are giving. A second example is how aggressively donors are activating their peers. The savviest donors are activating money that is currently sitting on the sidelines as part of the solution. And there are many more examples ranging from how donors use their platform to elevate the voices of the communities they are impacting, to donors leveraging mission-aligned investing and more. At a moment when the need for philanthropy far outstrips the sectors capacity, the most effective donors are finding ways to create leverage that amplifies their giving. Solving the most pressing social challenges we face has never been more complex. Unfortunately, theres no one secret sauce to effective philanthropy. There are, however, common mistakes that too many donors make, while those who avoid these tendencies are seeing real impact. Now is the moment for donors to shed these unconstructive habits.
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E-Commerce
Late-night Zillow scrolling just got a little easier on the eyes. The residential real estate platform announced that dark mode is now available on its iOS app. Just tap your profile icon in the top-right corner, then tap app settings, select the dark app theme, and voil, you can scroll through listings more comfortably in the dark. “Your midnight move starts here,” Zillow says. Dark mode has been one of Zillow’s most requested features, the company says, and before the update, the best fans of dark mode could do was use a browser extension that offered a three-month free trial. Dark mode is popular for reducing energy consumption (and saving battery life), and Zillow says it’s about more than just aesthetics because it reduces screen glare and eye strain in low-light settings. [Image: Zillow] The reason Zillow dark mode took so long to arrive is because the companys app has many content-rich screens, including interactive maps, listing photos, and financial tools. Designing a dark mode wasn’t as simple as applying a dark theme across the board, Zillow tells Fast Company. Extra attention had to be paid to elements like color-coded map pins that show different listing types and statuses such as rentals, for sale, new construction, or homes youve already viewed. Zillow has 227 million average monthly unique users. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Zillow usage surged as Americans on lockdown dreamed of moving to a new place. Today, scrolling Zillow without any purchase intentionknown as Zillow doomscrolling (or Zillow therapy for some)is how many people use the app since mortgage rates remain high and home sales are softening. At least with dark mode, there’s one less reason bedtime Zillowing will keep you up at night.
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E-Commerce
How do we tell our story? That’s a familiar phrase in brand marketing. Its a decent question, but heres a provocation to challenge this conventional wisdom: Storytelling and marketing are no longer reliable ways to build and grow a brand. To understand whats to come, its useful to look at what gets awardedand what doesntat the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. Based on what we saw last week, the patterns indicate that marketing, storytelling, and, in particular, the marketing funnel, in a conventional sense, have become less dependable. This framework has long been defined as: Company builds brand (awareness) Brand attracts customers (interest and consideration) Customers buy product (purchase) [Image: I&CO] In the past decade, three factors have emerged and dominated human psyche, culture, and marketing: short-form video, people as brands, and heightened consumer expectations. These shifted the power dynamic between brands and consumers, rendering the traditional marketing funnel doctrine less relevant. As marketers and brand builders helping companies grow, what we should be asking now is this: How do we build trust? Trust has always been essential for any brand, but it’s becoming a new, essential currency. The premium on trustworthiness has increased as the line between what is real versus generated or what is true versus not becomes indistinguishable. Here are the four steps of Trustnomicsthe new currency for brand growthin an algorithmic, agentic, and synthetic world. Identify your key product moment A key product moment is a distinct feature that makes the product value visible and readily understandable. Weve been obsessed with storytelling and marketing and overlooked the power of key product moments for brands. Look to the French insurance company AXA to see the power of a key product moment with measurable impact. Home insurance policies typically guarantee emergency relocation for fire and flood victims. AXA added de violences conjugales (and domestic violence) to contracts for its customers. It is a promise to help survivors of domestic violence escape by providing emergency housing relocation. Three Words is a profoundly simple key product moment that makes AXAs product value immediately tangible and morally differentiated. Within six months of adding domestic violence coverage to its policies, AXA provided emergency relocation assistance to more than 500 families. Customer trust metrics increased by 27%, and brand consideration among women ages 25 to 45 rose by 34%. The German discount supermarket Penny created another example with its Price Packs initiative. After redesigning packaging to display fixed prices in bright colors and big fonts, and showing its commitment to price stability, Pennys store traffic increased by 22% and market share grew by 3.2% in key regions, despite broader market volatility. In customer surveys, 78% of shoppers cited price transparency as a key factor in choosing Penny over competitors. To earn the currency of trust, dont tell why your brand is better. Show why its different in the product. Treat product as content Theres a brand that was on everyones mind and lips but didnt win any Lion inside the Palais: OpenAI. The company has grown by treating product as content. OpenAI publishes product-related press releases and articles several times a week. There is little effort in creating an emotional connection with consumers through marketing or storytelling. CEO Sam Altman understands that products are the make-or-break for any business. In an information era that is becoming agentic, the best way to earn attention and trust is through the products themselves. The brand that understands product as content best iswait for itApple, the Grand Prix winner of Creative Effectiveness for its decade-long Shot on iPhone initiative. At the ceremony, everyone was hoping for an emotionally driven, brand-led campaign. Quite the contrary, Shot on iPhone is technically a product demo, which creative judges and types often look down on. As appealing as brand marketing has been, a better way to earn trust, build a brand, and drive business now is by treating product as content. When you do this, though, you have to have a point of view and stick to it. Kudos to the Apple team for being highly disciplined and single-minded with their Instagram page and not littering it with product ads. Dont confuse product ads with product as content. [Screenshot: Apple/Instagram] Repeatable system > Scalable campaign Using Apple as a guide is aspirational but unrealistic. Most marketers and brand builders dont have $48.5 billion sitting in our bank accounts to spend on huge campaigns, media buys, or expensive productions. The Japanese streetwear brand Human Made, founded by the ultra-hip Nigo and supported by Pharrell Williams, was established in 2010. Despite its celebrity status, it had modest growth for more than a decade, and its revenue hovered around 1.7 billion yen (roughly $11.6 million). When Rei Matsunuma, a longtime Uniqlo executive, joined in 2021 as Human Mades COO, he created a 52-week product planning calendar and addressed supply chain issues. Then, he started Daily Tsdaily drops of date-stamped white T-shirts, making each days T-shirts unique and exclusive. [Image: Human Made] These were not shiny, scalable campaigns that would see much limelight at marketing industry events like Cannes. Instead, they were repeatable systems that generated consistent demand among brand fans and prospective customers. In less than four years, Human Mades revenue grew sixfold to 10 billion yen (nearly $70 million), with a presence in more than 80 countries and minimal investment in storytelling or marketing. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act, but a habit, wrote Will Durant in his 1926 book, The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the Greater Philosophers (paraphrasing Aristotle). Repeatable systems beat scalable campaigns. Flywheel of Trust By the time a business problem reaches marketing, its too late. When culture moves in real time, no marketing funnel can save a business. We need to turn our funnel mindset into a flywheel. [Image: I&CO] The flywheel of trust framework is based on the product itself, which is now the main driver in attracting customers. Company creates product Product attracts customers Customers trust brand Brand differentiates company In the past decade, this phenomenon has increased. Besides the aforementioned examples, others like Stanleys Quencher or Uniqlos Round Mini Shoulder Bag became sensational hits without relying on emotional storytelling or brand marketing. These brands gained traction not because they asked How do we tell our story? They asked, How do we build trust? If we translate this flywheel into tangible action, the four steps of Trustnomics are: Identify your key product moment Treat product as content Build a repeatable system Kick the flywheel of trust into motion As the world shifts from the information era to the agentic era, the marketing funnel doctrine is giving way to a new flywheel framework focused on earning and building trust. Trustnomics is not just an ingredient of your brand. Its the currency that powers brand growth.
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E-Commerce
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