Philanthropy This Week

Alice Plati

Good morning.

Several months after Melinda French Gates left the Gates Foundation, the gender-equity division she launched there is still going strong — and even ramping up its efforts.

Run by Anita Zaidi (above), who won accolades as a pediatrician in her native Pakistan, the division is continuing its health efforts and expanding beyond them to boost women’s economic and leadership power around the world, reports Sara Herschander.

In a Q&A, Sara asked Zaidi about her priorities, the innovations she’s most excited about, and how she stays optimistic in the face of the challenges women face around the world.

Among the efforts the gender-equity unit is supporting: a contraceptive patch that works for three months that women in developing countries can access without going through a health care provider; and a program that mentors and trains midcareer women to be leaders in global health.

How does Zaidi keep her head up when there’s so much repression and push-back around the world? Many of the efforts have a long time horizon, she told Sara. “We will see the impact in 10 to 15 years, which is why I don’t get depressed. These are all the things that we do right now to be in it for the long game.”

Here’s what else you need to know:

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Even in hard times, donors will find a way to contribute to charity if they’re given a compelling reason. That’s one takeaway from two recent studies that highlighted continuing challenges (the drop in the number of donors) and encouraging news (a new group of donors emerged during the pandemic who may respond to digital appeals), reports Rasheeda Childress.

“There are a lot of really good lessons to take away from the pandemic,” Una Osili of the Indiana University Lilly School of Philanthropy told Rasheeda. “There was a lot of awareness of need. Even though it was a challenging time, people saw an opportunity and a way to make a difference.”

To reverse that dropoff in donors, fundraisers need to engage them in a greater variety of ways, said Woodrow Rosenbaum of GivingTuesday, some of which don’t involve asking for money.

“Donor fatigue is a myth,” he told Rasheeda. “But that doesn’t mean that the donors aren’t tired of the same old transactional engagement.”

GivingTuesday is fast approaching, but there’s still time to prepare, even if you haven’t started, writes Rasheeda in another article. Rasheeda talked to experts who shared tips to make the most of the giving day, which this year is December 3 — among them, enlist volunteers and ask donors to give early.

Joseph Dicklin/Iowa State Daily

Too many diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts are falling short, even when large sums are devoted to them, writes columnist Eboo Patel (opinion).

Recent research and reporting from three sources portray a field that needs restructuring to fulfill its potential, he writes. One cites the DEI program at the University of Michigan. After spending $250 million, the percentage of Black students remained at about 5 percent and students and faculty have fewer interactions with people unlike them than at the start of the program.

“The DEI movement is at a crossroads,” Patel writes. “If its leaders double down on defending the movement in its current form, I believe funders will pull money, thoughtful staff members will quietly quit, allies will start to jump ship, and enemies will pounce.”

In another opinion piece, writer Jeff Raderstrong wonders whether it’s time to retire the acronym “BIPOC.” “Leaning on overused words, acronyms, and cliches obfuscates a nonprofit’s intentions both on and off the page, causing it to lose sight of its goals,” he writes.

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Amid all the talk about trust-based philanthropy and grant makers yielding power to grantees, another side of trust is too often overlooked (opinion).

“Rapid pivots, major transitions, and sudden plans to wind down grant making create major — and sometimes insurmountable — challenges for grantees,” write Clare Gibson Nangle and Marianne Møllmann of the Fund for Global Human Rights. “Yet many of the same donors who are touted for their commitment to trust-based practices contribute to this uncertainty.”

They cite the recent announcement that the Wellspring Philanthropic Fund will cease operations by 2028 as devastating news because Wellspring has been an important source of funds for the organization.

Even MacKenzie Scott comes under fire: They received one gift from her but have no idea if another will follow.

“The Fund for Global Human Rights — like so many other intermediary grant making institutions — aspires to provide stability and a safe harbor for the movements we support,” they add. “But we rely on consistent funding to do that.”

— Marilyn Dickey, Senior Editor, Copy

Urged on by fellow billionaires, philanthropist Michael Bloomberg has given a quiet, late donation to a nonprofit supporting Kamala Harris’s bid for the presidency, according to sources of the New York Times. Bloomberg gave about $50 million to Future Forward USA Action, a social-welfare nonprofit affiliated with Harris’s main super-PAC. That is in addition to his $47 million in federally disclosed political contributions so far this cycle, which fretful Democrats noted was less than he gave to campaigns during Trump’s presidency. Among those nudging him to open his checkbook were Bill Gates, investor Ron Conway, and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, the Times reports. (New York Times)

A Jewish nonprofit is working to get climate-minded voters to turn out, putting aside divisions over the war in Gaza that are roiling Jewish communities across the country. Dayenu, a nonpartisan group that claims tens of thousands of members and social media followers, and has dozens of branches in synagogues, helped persuade the country’s largest Jewish denomination, the Union of Reform Judaism, to divest from fossil fuels. It has also lobbied for federal clean-energy efforts. Its founder, Rabbi Jennie Rosenn, calls this an existential moment for the climate, and that urgency keeps volunteers with starkly different views of the war working alongside one another. (New York Times)

Allies of Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, have created a fund to support election officials who are targeted by frivolous lawsuits and to take action against those who hinder election procedures. “If providing this important public service becomes a personal liability, we won’t have election workers,” said Raffensperger, who recently spent more than $500,000 of his own money to defend himself against a lawsuit that arose out of a right-wing conspiracy theory about the 2020 election. The nonprofit Election Defense Fund has raised $2 million of its $5 million goal. (New York Times)

Museums around the country are greeting this election season with examinations of democracy, and some are even getting involved in the democratic process. From an exhibit at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts on representative government, to debates, hosted in part by Los Angeles’s Hammer Museum, on the role of the Electoral College, to the American Museum of Natural History in New York serving as an early-voting site, museums are finding ways to acknowledge the moment while mindful that some visitors come through the doors hoping to escape the crush of politics. (New York Times)

Donations to abortion funds, which help women who cannot afford the procedure, surged in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade, but they are tapering off even as demand remains high. Most women who seek abortions are poor, and state-level bans, which force people to travel for care, have made the procedure more expensive. The funds are strategizing how to survive a possible second Trump presidency and the threat of a nationwide ban, while trying save money, for example by relying more on telehealth-assisted abortions. (San Francisco Chronicle)

The Sierra Club California is losing members while trying to navigate tension over what its mission should be. Many older members protest what they say is the club’s turn away from wilderness protection, and newer members largely champion a focus on environmental justice. Officials of the state club, which counts 134,000 members, insist the two goals are compatible, while one older committee member said the club needs to evolve, even at the risk of alienating older members who are also important donors. (Los Angeles Times)

The Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Mass., has received a blockbuster donation of artworks and money from the foundation of a late software entrepreneur who had served on its board of trustees. The 331 works given by the Aso O. Tavitian Foundation come with more than $45 million to build a new wing to house them and to fund a curator’s position. A foundation executive estimated the value of the art, by European artists from the 15th through the 19th centuries, at several hundred million dollars. (New York Times)

Rockefeller University in New York City is selling two valuable abstract impressionist paintings to fund biomedical research and to better protect the artworks. The paintings, by Joan Mitchell, could sell at auction for as much as $32 million next month. Although the university has endowment assets of $2.5 billion and just capped a $777 million fundraising campaign, its president said the cost of biomedical research has outpaced federal grants and that the university lacks a proper environment to protect and display such valuable works. (New York Times)

A new nonprofit is helping developers in Africa create artificial-intelligence-based tools to deal with some of the continent’s most stubborn problems. After a monthslong competition, Opportunity International is backing three projects to help farmers adapt to climate change and to help educators create lesson plans and run their schools. The organization’s chief technical officer said he hopes to support three A.I.-based apps each year through the competition, which is backed by philanthropists, mentors in Big Tech, and technical support from MIT platforms. (Time)

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School Libraries: The Laura Bush Foundation for America’s Libraries provides funds to the nation’s neediest schools so that they can extend, update, and diversify the book and print collections in their libraries with the goal of encouraging students to develop a love of reading and learning. Funding may be used to purchase printed or Braille volumes, audio books, e-books, magazine/serial copies or subscriptions, and e-magazine subscriptions. Eligible applicants include public schools, neighborhood schools, charter schools, and others. Application deadline is December 6.

STEM Learning: The Advancing Informal STEM Learning program seeks to center engagement, broaden participation and belonging, and further the well-being of individuals and communities who have been and continue to be excluded, underserved, or underrepresented in STEM. The current solicitation encourages proposals from institutions and organizations that serve public audiences and specifically focus on public engagement with and understanding of STEM.