Philanthropy Today

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Next up in The Commons in Conversation interview series:

• How do average Americans react to common nonprofit vernacular like “community,” “diversity,” and “democracy”? Amy McIsaac leads a language perception project at Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement and will talk about words that bring us together and those that divide us. This is a special pre-election event on October 30 at 12:30 p.m. ET. The event is free; registration is required.
  

News and other noteworthy items:

• Doris Duke Foundation president Sam Gill spoke with Inside Philanthropy about the firestorm of criticism that followed a Chronicle of Philanthropy op-ed he wrote with other leading grant makers. The authors — who included conservatives and progressives — acknowledged that “not all social and political agendas are morally equivalent” but “pledged to reject efforts by anyone to circumscribe or proscribe the programmatic prerogatives of donors or their foundations, so long as the exercise of those prerogatives conforms with the law.” Gill told Inside Philanthropy: “The American experiment, on the one hand, doesn’t work if words like pluralism are a defense for the toleration of profound injustice and the subjection and subjugation of part of the population. But the American project also doesn’t work if there can only be one dogma, one ideology, one right way to see every complex issue.”
• Builders, the global anti-polarization effort backed by philanthropist Daniel Lubetzky, has launched a weekly ranking of members of Congress that deems officials “builders” or “dividers.” The most recent edition examined lawmakers’ responses to hurricane relief efforts.
• Voting rights activist Stacey Abrams and Matt Masterson of Microsoft’s Democracy Forward program joined Jon Stewart’s The Weekly podcast to discuss election security and the voting system’s vulnerabilities.
• Third Plateau, in partnership with Native Americans in Philanthropy and Civic (Re)Solve, has released a guide for funders to support Indigenous-led organizations working to engage voters, protect voting rights, and cultivate Indigenous candidates in 2024.