---
title: Charitology Summit
group: Reach
order: 1
summary: Prepare provisional working sessions, role placeholders, access and production checks, follow-up outputs and tentative UTC calendar drafts.
status: live
statusNote: Live local summit-planning software is available. No event, host, venue, confirmed speaker, invitation or recording permission is established by a planning record.
conditions: [fragmentation, missing-profession]
firstMilestone: A free online pilot with sessions on three Open Problems, a red-team session and a failure session, all recorded and published.
help:
  - Open an issue labeled program proposing a working session built around one open problem.
  - If your institution could host an online pilot or an in-person summit, open an issue labeled program.
  - Suggest ways to bring in people from the communities charity serves, not only funders and experts.
related: [/open-problems/, /open-problems/the-fragmentation-question/, /record/progress-report/, /programs/red-team/]
---

## Use the operational planning software

Use the [summit desk](#partner-workspace-charitology-summit) to design sessions around research questions and written outputs. Record role placeholders, access needs, consent and follow-up. Calendar export includes complete noncancelled UTC planning slots, marks them tentative and flags schedule overlaps. It sends no invitation and announces no event.

The workspace includes separate institutional-readiness records. Those records track what responsible people still need to establish; they do not grant approval or verify a legal, funded program. The longer-term charter below remains an institutional proposal.

Save each form, inspect the generated kit and export a backup. Your records stay in this browser. Imports are validated, destructive changes offer undo and newer work from another tab is protected. Fictional examples contain no real commitments, participants or results.

## What it is

Experts work across many causes and disciplines; this proposal would give them a shared place to examine the system that connects their work. The Charitology Summit would gather people once a year around that shared system: researchers, funders, nonprofit staff and the people charity serves, from every cause and every moral framework.

## How it works

The summit would be organized around work, not speeches. Each session would take one open problem, one dataset or one disagreement and end with something written down: a plan, a partial answer or a list of what would settle the question. Some sessions would return every year: progress on the [Open Problems](/open-problems/), a red-team session on Charitology’s own claims and a session where organizations present their failures.

Attendance would be free or low-cost, with travel support for people from the communities and countries where much charitable money is spent. Every session would be streamed and published. An online pilot would come first.

## Why it matters for the system

The [Fragmentation Problem](/diagnosis/fragmentation/) raises the question of when shared information and incentives help organizations coordinate. A summit built around shared problems would give them one, and a place to start sharing data and dividing work.

It would also treat the [Missing Profession](/diagnosis/missing-profession/). A field needs somewhere its people can meet, argue and recognize each other’s work. A yearly summit could be where a new field starts to know itself.

## Risks and limits

Conferences can become prestige events, which would feed the [Prestige Economy](/diagnosis/prestige-economy/) instead of treating it. The summit would sell no speaking slots or sponsor tiers, and it would publish its costs. Travel has costs of its own, so taking part online would be a full option, not an afterthought. Until partners, funding and a proper legal and governance setup are in place, the program accepts no money.

## What success looks like

Within five years, the summit has produced published progress on several open problems, and at least one coordination effort among organizations working on the same problem has started there.