How to Play
Everything you need to know before you start — without spoiling the strategy.
The Premise
You are the leader of a philanthropic foundation. Your world is facing crisis after crisis — and you have resources to help. The question is: Can your philanthropy save the world?
You start with 100 units of assets (you get to name your currency). Over 6 rounds, you'll face different crises and decide how to allocate your resources. After the active rounds, your decisions play out over 10 more years. The final state of the world determines whether you win.
Your World Has Three Dimensions
People
Human wellbeing: health, education, hunger, livelihoods
Systems
Institutional strength: governance, infrastructure, civil society
Planet
Environmental resilience: climate, ecosystems, natural resources
World Health is the average of all three scores. Each starts at 50 out of 100.
To win, your world must stay out of the RED zone at the end of the game. But there's a catch: if any single dimension drops too low, the world is in crisis regardless of the average. You need to keep all three dimensions healthy.
Two Big Decisions Before You Start
Funding Rate
How much of your endowment do you give away each round? A lower rate means your foundation lasts longer. A higher rate means bigger impact now but faster depletion.
Conservative → Aggressive
Investment Mix
How do you invest your remaining assets? Market investing earns more money but may harm the world. Impact investing earns less but does no damage. You choose the balance.
All Impact → Mostly Market
At halftime (after Round 3), you'll have a chance to change these decisions.
Four Ways to Respond to Each Crisis
Each round, you decide how to split your available funding across four strategies:
Direct Service
Immediate impactAffects: PeopleFund immediate relief — food banks, shelters, clinics. Fast results, but the need keeps coming back.
Systemic Change
Delayed impactAffects: People + SystemsFund policy, advocacy, and reform. Slow to show results, but shifts the underlying conditions.
Civic Infrastructure
Delayed impactAffects: SystemsBuild institutions, strengthen governance, invest in community capacity.
Environment
Delayed impactAffects: PlanetFund conservation, climate adaptation, and sustainable development.
Key trade-off: Direct service produces results right away but has a lower multiplier. The other three strategies have a much higher impact multiplier, but their effects take several rounds to fully materialize.
The World Gets Worse on Its Own
Every round, all three dimensions lose health points automatically. This is the core tension: you're running to keep up, not just investing at leisure.
If your investment mix includes market investing, there's an additional penalty proportional to your market share. The more you chase returns, the more your investments harm the very world you're trying to save.
After Round 6: The Coast Period
After your 6 active rounds, the world evolves for 10 more years. During this time:
- Your foundation continues giving at your chosen rate
- The world continues to face decay
- Your Durability Index — a measure of how much you invested in long-term structural strategies — provides a bonus that offsets some of the decay
At the end of Year 16, the final world health scores are tallied. If the world isn't in the RED zone, you win.
Quick Tips
- 1.Balance is key. Neglecting any dimension can be fatal — even if the others are thriving.
- 2.Short-term vs. long-term is the central tension. Direct service helps now; structural investment pays off over time.
- 3.Your investment mix has real consequences. Higher market returns come at a cost to the world.
- 4.The game doesn't end at Round 6. The coast period is where long-term strategies shine.