Philanthropy Today

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From senior editor Drew Lindsay: We have essays this week from two prominent nonprofit leaders who see answers to America’s divisions from vastly different perspectives.

Billy Shore, founder and longtime leader of the anti-poverty organization Share Our Strength, writes about the mission mindset that bonds his colleagues at the Maine fire station where he volunteers. The firefighters range from lobster-boat veterans to former tech entrepreneurs, but the differences fall away because of their shared purpose and commitment.

Meanwhile, Eboo Patel, CEO of Interfaith America, notes that even as DEI is attacked, religious leaders of all stripes are locking arms to defend immigrants and international aid. It’s an opportunity, he says, for philanthropy to pivot and advance a new diversity agenda.

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.

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News and other noteworthy items:

• In the first of a Fulcrum series of interviews called “The Path Forward: Defining the Democracy Reform Movement,” Julia Roig of the Horizons Project describes what she sees as a slow response by pro-democracy forces to Trump administration moves. “We are living in a different country today than we were a month ago,” Roig told Scott Warren of the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University, “and I’m not sure that I see enough people pivoting or even having the conversations about what’s needed to be pivoting.”
  
• A two-year study involving 6,000 Americans finds that most people value connecting with others across racial, socioeconomic, religious, and political differences, but they report a lack of opportunity to meet others. Survey respondents expressed the most interest in activities where they could work together, according to the report by More in Common, an international group that studies division.
  
• In its online ‘zine Pockets of Courage, the New Pluralists funder collaborative profiles “community pluralists” such as a violence interrupter in Dallas, a community project welcoming Afghan refugees to rural Missouri, and a former gang leader making peace between gangs in Dallas. “Policy change alone will not solve this clash of views and beliefs in our democracy,” an introduction declares. “We need the power of people — those who are transforming the ways we treat each other, make decisions, and create solutions together.”