Philanthropy Today

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Please note: The Commons edition of Philanthropy Today will be off next week. It will return to your inbox on Wednesday, July 9.

From senior editor Drew Lindsay: Next week, as America celebrates its founding, one uncomfortable theme in our country’s history isn’t likely to get a lot of attention. That is: It took confrontational, noisy, and disruptive movements to bring about important social change, including women’s right to vote and civil rights for Black Americans.

Writing in The Commons this week, Julia Roig and Rinku Sen argue that nonprofits and philanthropy are ignoring this history at a critical moment. Advocates pursuing common ground with MAGA members are sidelining and trying to muzzle advocates for the most vulnerable Americans, they say — people like those who protested immigration raids in Los Angeles and who took to the streets for No Kings marches. At worst, “social movements for racial, gender, and environmental justice are vilified as too divisive, a critique that fuels the authoritarian fire.”

Roig, head of the Horizons Project, and Sen, who leads the Narrative Initiative, outline an “inside outside” strategy, with pluralism advocates working to bridge differences while civil resistance aims to “raise the heat” and bring attention to injustice. The field, they say, can’t afford to be divided at a moment that demands “our combined talents and networks to fight for a functional and fair multiracial democracy.”

Read their full essay.

How can the country come together, rebuild trust, and strengthen communities? For almost a year, nonprofit leaders, writers, and thinkers have shared their blueprints for change in our Commons in Conversation interview series on LinkedIn.

Starting next Tuesday, July 1, we’re sharing six of those timely interviews in a limited-series podcast. Guests will include:

• Philanthropist and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and Lever for Change CEO Cecilia Conrad.
  
• Pulitzer Prize-winning author Barbara Kingsolver.
  
• Kellogg Foundation president La June Montgomery Tabron.

We’ll post new episodes every Tuesday. Look for The Commons in Conversation next week wherever you get your podcasts, subscribe, and download episodes!

Illustration by The Chronicle of Philanthropy; Canva stock images.

We’re at work on a summer project for The Commons. And we’d love your help.

We’re assembling a “best of” list of books, podcasts, movies, and documentaries that feature ideas about how to bring Americans together, strengthen democracy and fractured communities, tackle isolation, fix tears in the social fabric, and make governing institutions more responsive to the people. Send us your thoughts through this easy, quick-answer form.

Your suggestions don’t have to be recent; you could recommend Robert Putnam’s 2000 book Bowling Alone or the more recent documentary about his ideas, Join or Die. Regardless, we hope you’ll focus on items that are available now, either in or through bookstores, libraries, streaming services, or YouTube.

Also, to avoid promotion of “home cooking,” please don’t recommend items that you or your organization have created.

Thanks in advance for your help!

If democracy is unraveling, what can save it? Scholar, author, and nonprofit leader Danielle Allen joins The Commons in Conversation to talk about a range of solutions championed by philanthropy and nonprofits. These include reform of institutions like Congress and the Supreme Court, investment in civics education, and a rekindling of civic spirit in local communities.

Allen leads theAllen Lab for Democracy Renovation at the Harvard Kennedy School and is director of the Democratic Knowledge Project, a civics-education research project. She’s also the founder ofPartners in Democracy, which advocates for democracy reforms.

She’ll talk with me, a Chronicle senior editor, on Thursday, July 10, at 1 p.m. ET on LinkedIn Live.

Register for this free event.

“Too often, national civic institutions design campaigns in conference rooms far removed from the communities they’re trying to reach. They assume that youth engagement is a matter of better messaging, cleaner design, or more streamlined programming. This approach misses the point entirely: Trust isn’t scalable, at least not in the ways these institutions imagine. It doesn’t travel well through tool kits or targeted ads, particularly among already-marginalized communities.” — Hannah Botts, Campus Compact’s Rural Youth Voices Initiative; “Rising Where We’re Rooted: How Local Organizations Are Rebuilding Youth Trust”

“Most foundations, even some very big ones, don’t have websites. Most also don’t accept unsolicited proposals. And good luck trying to get anyone on the phone if you’re wondering how to get a grant. Cold calls and emails famously go into a black hole at foundations — never mind that we all help bankroll these places. …

“This insularity helps explain polls showing that philanthropy is out of step with public opinion about how it operates. A strong majority of survey respondents say they’re against the idea of perpetuity foundations, the model followed by most grant makers.” — David Callahan, Inside Philanthropy; “How Much Should Foundations Care About Public Opinion?” (requires a subscription)