Philanthropy’s purpose should transcend filling gaps or funding innovation. Yet, with the rapid withdrawal of global aid in 2025, do we now take as a given that the era of large-scale international public finance is over? Designing a new economic paradigmNow we must acknowledge the damage this fragmented system of public, private, and people sectors pulling in different directions inflicts on communities and natural ecosystems. Human and planetary wellbeing should be the unifying aim that anchors all three public, private and people sectors. In this pivotal moment, philanthropy’s greatest contribution may be helping birth the economic paradigm our world desperately needs.