Beyond Growth: Questions That Demand Our Honesty
In the charity and social impact world, it’s easy to stay busy. We build, we scale, we measure, we report. And yet, beneath all the activity, many of us are quietly wondering whether the systems we’ve created are truly working, or whether they’ve started to protect themselves.
This post contains the questions asked of a group of people who gathered in September 2025 to think through this stuff. Consider it an invitation to pause. To hold a mirror to the ways we lead, fund, and serve. And to ask, with honesty, what kind of change we’re really building.
Reflective Questions
-
Where are we unintentionally protecting systems of charity that make people dependent on us, rather than free from us?
-
What would it take for us to measure success not in growth, but in communities no longer needing our services?
-
Where might true leadership mean shrinking, stopping, or stepping aside so that justice, not charity, can flourish?
-
How might our current ways of working unintentionally keep people dependent, instead of helping them live free from poverty?
-
If growth wasn’t the measure of success, what new goals would matter most in your work?
-
Where could stepping back, slowing down, or handing over power create more justice than simply doing more?
-
What needs to happen next to progress this conversation into action that might influence others?
These aren’t theoretical questions, they’re lived ones. They belong in board meetings, in team reflections, in community spaces, and in the quiet moments between projects. If we dare to ask them – and stay long enough with the discomfort they bring – we may just begin to see what it means to move beyond growth, beyond performance, and toward a form of change rooted in justice, humility, and freedom.
Use the form below to share your reflections on the above with us. If you would like us to publish them as a post to be shared, please indicate using the form.
