USAID Closure: Why the World Needs a Social Capital Fund

Beyond Philanthropy and Politics: Embedding Social Capital into the Heart of the Economy

Edgar Sandoval in Ethiopia

The official closure of USAID, once the world’s largest bilateral foreign aid agency, marks a seismic shift in global humanitarian assistance. For organizations like World Vision, the impact is immediate and devastating. The sudden withdrawal of funding has endangered programs serving millions, from drought relief in Ethiopia to life-saving vaccinations across Asia. While some portray this move as a pivot toward nationalist self-interest, the broader consequences reveal a dangerous vacuum—one that demands not just a rescue plan, but a paradigm shift in how we fund the work of global compassion.

This is where The Global Social Capital Fund steps in—not as a replacement for government or philanthropy, but as a radical rethinking of what economies are for. It represents a shift from treating social well-being as an afterthought to recognizing social capital as a core component of economic value. In doing so, it redefines responsibility—not just corporate, but collective—and it expands the common good to include the human bonds that hold societies together.

Beyond the Aid Model: The Urgent Need for Systemic Reform

In an interview with Christianity Today, World Vision CEO Edgar Sandoval shared the sobering reality: due to USAID’s collapse, thousands of field workers risk losing their jobs, and millions of people may lose access to food, health care, and disease prevention. One-third of World Vision’s U.S. funding was directly tied to government grants. The vacuum left behind cannot be filled by donations alone.

But the real crisis is not just funding—it’s dependency. NGOs around the world rely on an unstable patchwork of government aid, crisis-driven philanthropy, and seasonal donations. That’s not a sustainable model. As public funding dries up and trust in institutions erodes, we are left with a stark choice: retreat into isolation, or build a new, durable framework for global solidarity.

This is where The Global Social Capital Fund offers a breakthrough: it proposes embedding the value of humanitarian work directly into the economic system, rather than treating it as external or optional.

The Invisible Engine: Social Capital as Economic Bedrock

For decades, the global economy has operated on a single axis: profit. What cannot be monetized—trust, care, community—is rendered invisible. This is why so many well-meaning CSR programs and ESG ratings feel hollow: they remain tethered to a model that prioritizes short-term shareholder value over long-term human flourishing.

But no society survives without social capital—the networks of trust, cooperation, and mutual care that underpin everything from education to peace. In fact, markets require social capital to function. Yet our current system behaves as though it were costless and inexhaustible.

A Global Social Capital Fund flips this logic on its head. It recognizes that investments in community health, humanitarian aid, education, resilience, and civic trust are not simply "charity"—they are economic infrastructure. They are just as vital as roads and electricity. In this view, social capital is not peripheral to the economy—it is the economy.

From Philanthropy to Policy: A Paradigm Shift in Responsibility

As argued in Business Responsibility Beyond ESG, ESG has become more about box-ticking than transformation. It fails to address the core flaw: a narrow definition of economic value that excludes what truly makes societies function.

The Global Social Capital Fund is not another charity drive. It’s a mechanism to integrate social outcomes into economic logic. Think of it as a social “sovereign wealth fund”—a multilateral pool funded by the business sector, as part of their social capital obligations and responsibilities.

This reimagining of nonprofit funding moves the sector from margin to center. No longer a dependency of philanthropy or a political football of state power, humanitarian work becomes a fully recognized and resourced pillar of global stability—resistant to electoral cycles and market crashes.

It is a shift from relief to resilience.

A Christian Ethic for the Economic Age

World Vision’s mission is anchored in a biblical call: to serve the poor and the oppressed. As Sandoval reminds us, Scripture contains more than 2,000 verses commanding believers to care for the vulnerable. But responding to that call in today’s fractured world requires more than goodwill. It requires structure. Scale. Sustainability.

The Global Social Capital Fund aligns directly with Christian ethics—where treasure is stored in people, not portfolios. It answers the parable of the Good Samaritan not with sentiment, but with infrastructure. By creating a vehicle for long-term, accountable investment in social capital, we give churches, companies, and communities a way to live out their values—without relying solely on tax dollars or private donors.

This is how we operationalize compassion.

The End of Aid—or the Beginning of Something Better?

Foreign aid, contrary to popular belief, represents less than 1% of the U.S. federal budget. Yet the return on that investment has been extraordinary: 26 million lives saved through PEPFAR. A 59% drop in child mortality. Entire diseases eradicated.

The World Vision story from Ethiopia—where communities burst into applause as food arrived, unaware it might be their last shipment—drives the point home. The humanitarian sector is not broken. It is overburdened and underfunded by systems that refuse to value what cannot be sold.

That’s what The Global Social Capital Fund aims to change.

Embedding Goodness in the Economy

We must expand the definition of economic productivity. A teacher who prevents youth incarceration, a water project that keeps girls in school, a food shipment that prevents migration—all of these are productive. They save governments billions. They create peace. They nurture future citizens and workers.

But in our current economic models, they do not count.

The Fund would allow us to correct that blindness. It would offer corporations the opportunity to support and report on direct social capital contributions—not just carbon offsets or diversity metrics. It would allow institutional investors to co-finance public good. And it would give civil society a seat at the economic table.

A New Era of Shared Investment

The collapse of USAID may signal the end of one era, but it could also be the beginning of a new one—one where social responsibility is no longer outsourced, but internalized. Where faith-based organizations, businesses, and governments co-create a sustainable global safety net—not as a gesture of charity, but as a condition for peace and prosperity.

The Global Social Capital Fund is more than a policy proposal. It is a covenant. A signal that we have learned from the fragility of existing systems—and are ready to build something more enduring in their place.