Philanthropy Today

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From senior editor Drew Lindsay: Dame Louise Richardson knows polarization all too well. Before becoming the president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, she led universities in the United Kingdom during the 2014 referendum on Scottish independence and the 2016 Brexit referendum — votes that left ugly scars on the populace.

Divisions are worse in the United States today, Richardson writes in The Commons this week. But data from Carnegie-backed researchers offers reason for optimism — and points to opportunities for grant makers of all stripes.

I invite you to dive into Richardson’s essay, her array of encouraging stats, and her examples of where grant makers can make a difference.

In the next episode of The Commons in Conversation, Reid Hoffman and Chronicle of Philanthropy editor-in-chief Andrew Simon will discuss the LinkedIn co-founder’s latest philanthropic venture: a $10 million open call for organizations working to build trust in government, the media, public health, universities, and more. Hoffman will be joined by Cecilia Conrad, CEO of Lever for Change, who is managing his competition and who has led open-call drives for MacKenzie Scott and the MacArthur Foundation’s 100&Change program.

Register for this free LinkedIn event, which starts at 1 p.m. ET on Wednesday, March 26.

On Wednesday, March 19, at 2 p.m. ET, Chronicle of Philanthropy senior editor Drew Lindsay will join nonprofit leaders to talk about advocacy during this critical moment and how to turn citizens into true advocates and strengthen democracy. We’ll lean into the ideas of Commons contributor Sam Daley-Harris, author of Reclaiming Our Democracy: Every Citizen’s Guide to Transformational Advocacy and the founder of RESULTS and Civic Courage.

Register for this free event, which will be online and in person at the RESULTS headquarters in Washington, D.C.

News and other noteworthy items:

• The Democracy Funders Network is out with a guide for how donors can support citizen assemblies to build civic power at the local level. “This moment in our nation’s history calls out for reimagining how our democracy might operate to rebuild public trust, break through ideological polarization, and improve government responsiveness to the communities it serves,” the report says. (Read our Commons story about a citizen assembly in Bend, Ore.)
• PBS correspondent Judy Woodruff has restarted her “America at a Crossroads” series, exploring the country’s divisions and ways to bring people together. In the first installment since a post-election hiatus, Woodruff interviews Bowling Alone author Robert Putnam. The scholar said today’s polarization echoes that of the Gilded Age — “That was the last time the gap between rich and poor was anywhere near as large as it is now, so very polarized, very unequal, very socially disconnected, very socially isolated.” Solutions, he argues, will come from the bottom up, like they did in the Progressive Era. (Read our Commons conversation between Putnam and Citizen University CEO Eric Liu.)
• Eve Sneider and Jonathan Stray — writers behind the Substack Better Conflict Bulletin — note that “polarization” is among the words at the National Science Foundation that are reportedly triggering scrutiny from the Trump administration. “Polarization has become polarized,” they write. “We need new ways to think and talk [about] what divides us, and how we might come back together.”