Listen Now! Why Big Philanthropy Is Funding Small Hyperlocal Projects
In the fourth episode of our Commons in Conversation podcast, we investigate an interesting byproduct of the division and conflict in Washington: Some grant makers are trying to repair the country’s social fabric by going hyperlocal and funding small projects in communities. Join Rockefeller Brothers Fund president Stephen Heintz and Katie Loudin of the West Virginia Community Development Hub for a discussion of the year-old Trust for Civic Life, an unusual $30 million cross-ideological funder collaborative bankrolling homegrown initiatives.
Members of the trust include Rockefeller Brothers, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Omidyar Network, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Stand Together, and Walmart.
Listen to the conversation on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you get your podcasts.
Catalyst for American Futures, a two-year-old group championing democracy and fighting authoritarianism, has just published a collection of 26 essays examining the universal ideals and values that undergird America’s democracy. The writers featured in Out of Many, One include many nonprofit and philanthropy leaders. Here are a few excerpts:
“Our generation, raised in an Internet age that foments outrage, nihilism, and tribalism, must reject both the nostalgia that airbrushes injustice and the fatalism that dismisses the prospect of an America that is both great and good. As heirs to the unfinished work and unmatched promise of the American experiment, we can choose to be stewards of renewal rather than curators of viral grievance.”
Hannah Koizumia and Hugh Jones, Gen Z co-directors, Civic Attention
“Freedom doesn’t become real just because it’s written into founding documents. It has to be experienced — in neighborhoods, schools, libraries, and local digital spaces. It’s in the daily work of building trust, solving problems together, and showing up for one another that we bring life to our universal ideals. That’s the work of local community. And in this moment of national division and democratic uncertainty, it may be the most important work we have.”
Deepti Doshi, co-director, New_Public
“We’re living in times when the American story is often framed as a WWE-style match between Team Red and Team Blue, where a vortex of polarization sucks nearly every topic into each side’s ideological script. Although addictive for many, and profitable for some, this cultural frame is disastrous for our democracy and our personal lives. That frame also ignores America’s foundational idea of E Pluribus Unum: Out of many, one. More than ever, we must transform “us vs. them” into a new story of us — a story that weaves together the frayed American social fabric.”
Steven Olikara, president, Bridge Entertainment Labs
