Philanthropy Today

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From senior editor Drew Lindsay: Polarization and partisanship are pushing nonprofits away from lobbying and advocacy. That’s the finding of a new study that concludes that even social-service organizations — often considered politically neutral — fear blowback from donors and retaliation by government officials. “Nonprofits are biting their tongues,” the report’s authors say in this brief about their research.

Also: A veteran fundraiser outlines three elements of a fundraising strategy to navigate today’s uncertain landscape — a playbook he credits to Moral Majority leader Jerry Falwell and Christian conservatives.

News and other noteworthy items:

• In Forbes, Lumina Foundation CEO Jamie Merisotis endorses civics education as a bipartisan means of reinvigorating democracy. “The increasingly popular notion of requiring civics instruction at every level of education is one supported — for different reasons — by people who sometimes hold very different world views,” he writes. More than a third of Americans cannot name the three branches of government, he notes.
  
• Colorado Public Radio brought together three groups of state residents — college students, Colombian immigrants, and farmers and ranchers — to discuss the question: “What does community mean to you?” The common thread: “Everyone we spoke with wanted to be understood beyond others’ assumptions of them.”
  
• In a new report, the Bridgespan Group spotlights what it sees as successful efforts to build a multiracial democracy. “Many people who now experience the greatest threat are also proactively leading the charge, benefiting the broader society by offering a vision of what democracy can look like,” the report says. “And much of that work takes place outside of the structures of elections and focuses on how communities can be heard and included.” Among the groups highlighted: the 22nd Century Initiative, AAPI Civic Engagement Fund, California Donor Table, and New Pluralists.