While all social sector funding is perceived as of equal value, I would argue that a dollar invested in risk-taking capital has far more value. It is these dollars, without the burdensome restrictions and impact-diluting caveats often incumbent with risk-averse institutional funding, that have the freedom to create real-world change. In this case, it is the risk capital that will have put in place the flexibility to turn around a vaccine faster than ever before.

In the context of life beyond coronavirus, governments are absorbed by the present – providing loans and funds to help people survive, supporting healthcare and keeping peace – and most businesses are distracted or crippled. There is a tremendous opportunity and necessity for the world’s philanthropists to embrace the catalytic philanthropy approach and take the lead in focusing on many other challenging issues, in health and beyond, facing our world today, before they too become critical and calamitous.