In part 2 of our bumper end of year special (episode 40), we make some predictions for what 2019 might hold...

2019 Predictions:

Politics & Economics

• BREXIT (or not…?)
• General Election?
• UK voluntary reporting on SDGs
• Ongoing impact of austerity
• Local government funding and Local Authorities running out of money
• Populism & ongoing challenges for democracy
• Another global financial crash?

Philanthropy & Civil Society

• More critiques of big philanthropy; general default more critical (also in UK?)
• Focus on think tanks, dark money etc
• Austerity: debating role of charity vs state
• Further closing space issues, including digital angles (misinformation, astroturfing etc)
• Networked models for social change
• Line between civil society and politics will come under increasing strain
• Shifting power; democratising philanthropy
• Next big fundraising/charity scandal?

Technology

• Continuing tech backlash?
• More funders focussing on algorithmic bias
• Pushback on AI ethics- criticism that it frames the debate in the tech industry's terms and allows them to avoid discussion of regulation etc.
• Divergence of cryptophilanthropy and blockchain efforts
• Blockchain will continue to bubble under surface and back office blockchain use case will be demonstrated
• Self Sovereign Digital Identity will come to the fore
• Charity RegTech applications will emerge
• Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing for data collection and analysis on charity finances, philanthropy data
• More giving by conversational AI
• More commercial platforms adding giving functionality
• eSports growth, digital "skins" and giving via gaming platforms (e.g. Twitch)
• Deepfakes and challenges to online authenticity
• More awareness of personal data bargain
• Charity Data fines