According to Howe, “Hobbyists, part-timers and dabblers suddenly have a market for their efforts,” says Howe, “as smart companies in industries as disparate as pharmaceuticals and television discover ways to tap the latent talent of the crowd. The labor isn’t always free, but it costs a lot less than paying traditional employees. It’s not outsourcing; it’s crowdsourcing.”

From the very beginning, philanthropic entities such as the Rockefeller Foundation, the Case Foundation and Ashoka, began exploring ways crowdsourcing could be used to harness breakthrough ideas for social change.

For the past year, PhilanthroMedia has been tracking this trend we call: philanthrosourcing. It includes efforts to identify high-impact solutions to well-defined social challenges. By definition, these are challenges that resisted resolution through more traditional philanthropic strategy, or for which civic engagement is seen as an essential component of the solution. This trend’s most disruptive aspect is likely to the belief that winning solutions should garner philanthropic dollars for their execution regardless of whether they come from individuals, nonprofits or for-profits.

Like crowdsourcing, it’s on the rise, with immense potential for the future of philanthropy.