Philanthropy This Week

Jacquelyn Martin, AP

Good morning.

The recent Democratic convention in Chicago was an example of the power of cooperation and inspiration — an approach nonprofits would do well to emulate, writes columnist Eboo Patel (opinion).

In contrast to protests and images of clenched fists that often surface in the social sector, the convention’s themes were positive.

Instead of calls to dismantle existing institutions and chants like “Defund the police,” the convention’s themes centered on lines like “Believe in what can be, unburdened by what has been.” Instead of talking about people as victims of injustice, its approach was “Never let anyone tell you who you are; you show them who you are.”

The message wasn’t about policy but about culture — how people lead their lives and how they interact with others. “I’ve been hoping for a culture shift away from anger and division and toward unity and joy for a while now,” Patel writes. “My guess is that many people in the social sector feel the same.”

Elaborating on this theme, Patel encourages nonprofits to reconsider “the identity politics ethos of confrontation,” in favor of a perspective that “characterizes America as the greatest story ever told and believes that writing the next chapter means excelling at responsible positions in the social order such as teacher, coach, police officer, and prosecutor.”

Here’s what else you need to know:

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Most nonprofits have trepidation about using artificial intelligence, worrying about built-in bias and data breaches, among other things. But that isn’t stopping them from trying it.

More than two-thirds are using it now, and most others will be using it soon, writes Sara Herschander about a new GivingTuesday report. A.I. technology encompasses a wide range of tools, but about half of nonprofits are using generative A.I., such as ChatGPT and DALL-E, while some are exploring tools for A.I.-powered translation and data interpretation.

The report found some barriers to artificial intelligence for small nonprofits, but more important than size was having a dedicated tech or data specialist to help them tap into its offerings.

Rosenbaum wants nonprofits to be engaged in the A.I. revolution, adding, “The nonprofit sector can actually lead the development of these tools in some really important ways.”

Jeff Roberson, AP

Corporations have massive resources they could put toward racial equity, but the current backlash against anything that could be perceived as a diversity, equity, and inclusion program is making it harder to measure their commitments.

Nonprofits that address issues contributing to police shootings, for example, have received multi-year pledges from corporations only to be told a year later that the companies have shifted priorities and won’t be continuing their support, write Glenn Gamboa and Thalia Beaty for our partner, the Associated Press.

Some companies have shifted to giving in ways other than cash, such as volunteering or providing goods and services at a reduced rate. Even for those that have pledged monetary contributions — unless it’s through a corporate foundation — it’s hard to confirm that they’ve followed through.

“A lot of enterprises, I would say, understand the need to be accountable,” said Earl Lewis, director of the Center for Social Solutions at the University of Michigan, “but accountable and transparent may not be thought of as synonymous.”

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Sabbaticals are a lifeline for nonprofit leaders, especially leaders of color, writes our columnist Cora Daniels, who is fresh from a five-week sabbatical of her own (opinion).

“The current legal and political attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and on general efforts to advance equity have intensified the challenges and increased burnout, especially among leaders of color,” writes Daniels about a recent report by the Center on Effective Philanthropy.

Philanthropy can help give those leaders a chance to rest and recuperate. The Walter & Elise Haas Fund has launched a $24.5 million fund to give $500,000 a year for seven years to nonprofits, in part so they can offer wellness benefits. A group of nonprofit leaders of color in Washington state aims to offer grants for one-month and three-month sabbaticals and create tools and resources to help organizations establish sabbatical policies.

“Anecdotal evidence suggests nonprofit sabbaticals are on the rise, but they are still far from the norm.” writes Daniels. “Extended paid leaves, like the one I enjoyed, are even rarer.”

It’s something she hopes others in the fight for racial equity can experience: “Dismantling oppression and building a more equitable future is impossible when one is operating from a state of exhaustion.”

— Marilyn Dickey, senior editor for copy

A Latino civil rights group in Texas is asking the Justice Department to investigate a series of raids by Texas officials on voting and political activists. The League of United Latin American Citizens says the raids are aimed at intimidating activists and suppressing the Latino vote. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement that they are part of a probe into voting irregularities and declined to comment further on the investigation. Republicans in Texas have raised alarms about noncitizens voting, but a top state elections official recently said it has not been an issue. (New York Times)

Opinion: In response to successful conservative attacks on racial-justice efforts, activists and nonprofits are fighting not only to make up for diminished donations but also to keep the movement from being hollowed out, writes journalist and columnist Erin Aubry Kaplan. Along with a surge in funding in the wake of George Floyd’s murder came an explicit acknowledgement from some philanthropists that race was an inextricable part of America’s opportunity gap. But amid a conservative backlash, a collective of more than 100 Black-led groups is urging philanthropists not to lose their nerve, and the California Black Freedom Fund has launched a partnership with lawyers to educate funders “about what is actually illegal … and what is merely scare tactics.” (Capital & Main)

Ever since the Hamas attacks on Israel, billionaire donors have tried to use the power of the purse to force changes to governance at the country’s elite universities, raising questions of ethics and the mission of higher education. Money managers Marc Rowan and Bill Ackman have campaigned to block donations to their Ivy League alma maters, over the schools’ handling of pro-Palestinian protests and their diversity efforts. But not all billionaires agree on that path: Pharmaceuticals billionaire Roy Vagelos has called that approach “ridiculous” and stepped up his giving. (Financial Times)

Since the Supreme Court restricted affirmative action in college admissions, public universities across the country have eliminated more than $60 million in race-based scholarships. While the ruling last year did not mention financial aid, at least 13 of the country’s 50 flagship state universities have changed or ended the scholarships, sometimes at the direction of elected officials and sometimes in order to avoid potential lawsuits. Opponents of the grants call them discriminatory, but supporters note that Black students in particular are still underrepresented on campuses and have lower salaries and more debt upon graduation. (Washington Post)

Employees and directors at Raheem Al, a now-defunct anti-police nonprofit, faced a dilemma when they discovered that the founder had apparently misused hundreds of thousands of dollars of the struggling organization’s funds. After they investigated Brandon D. Anderson’s spending on travel, clothes, and chiropractic and veterinary care, the nonprofit’s two independent directors quit and eventually donors pulled their funding. Reporting the situation to law enforcement was a bitter pill for the group, but ultimately, the former staffer who discovered the irregularities reconsidered. Now the case is under investigation by the D.C. attorney general. Anderson declined to answer detailed questions. He sent a written statement saying that some allegations made about him were “rife with untruths,” but declined to specify which. (New York Times)

San Francisco’s district attorney is pulling out of a criminal justice reform partnership with the MacArthur Foundation, forgoing a $625,000 grant. MacArthur had prodded the office of D.A. Brooke Jenkins, who has overseen a rise in the city’s jail population since her former boss, Chesa Boudin, was ousted in a recall election. Jenkins’s chief of staff, who, like Jenkins, is a Black woman, accused the foundation of racism and “lecturing” in its dealings with the office. The MacArthur Foundation, which has given $5.2 million to the D.A.’s office since 2018, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. (Mission Local)

Donors are helping to seed local news organizations across the country, while journalists, fundraisers, politicians, and philanthropists are trying to figure out how to make the new outlets last. Facing the collapse of advertising revenue and an audience no longer willing to pay for local news, the teetering industry is debating how long foundations can support it. Meanwhile, talk of sustainability rings hollow in some impoverished communities, where news operations are unlikely ever to turn a profit. (Crain’s Chicago Business)

Within the struggle to deal with this era’s biggest challenges, such as income inequality, climate change, and homelessness, has been a tension between individual action and movement activism. A turn away from personal acts, including volunteering, and toward mass protests, such as Occupy Wall Street, in the 2010s, has coincided with a loneliness epidemic and increased despair, especially among younger Americans writes Vox’s Rachel M. Cohen in an essay. But people need not choose between the two, and the state of giving is not as dire as donor statistics suggest, when daily acts of charity among friends, family, and neighbors are included. (Vox)

Three leaders of an infectious-disease research institute in Seattle are suing the donor who saved the nonprofit from receivership at the onset of the pandemic. The executives of the Access for Advanced Health Institute accuse Patrick Soon-Shiong, a billionaire medical entrepreneur and owner of the Los Angeles Times, of withholding the final tranche of a $26 million commitment, along with a promised annual payment of $7.5 million, because they refused to divert the funds to a medical training program in South Africa. They say the money was intended for their primary focus of vaccine and immunotherapy research. Soon-Shiong said the grants were meant to fund the work in Africa, and that the institute has misused them. He said the lawsuit is an attempt at a “corporate coup” designed to thwart an investigation. (Forbes— subscription)

The Indianapolis Museum of Art has appointed its third leader in four years as it seeks to end a period of tumult sparked by a racially insensitive job posting. Le Monte G. Booker Sr., the former chief financial officer for Chicago’s Field Museum, replaces Colette Pierce Burnette, who left in November after just over a year on the job. Burnette, in turn, had replaced longtime leader Charles L. Venable, who resigned in 2021 amid blowback from posting a job announcement for a new museum director who would diversify the institution while maintaining its “traditional, core, white art audience.” Venable is white. Burnette and Booker are Black. (New York Times)

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