Philanthropy Today

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From senior editor Drew Lindsay: Young people have been in the vanguard of many movements, notably for civil rights and against apartheid. They also are at the core of the conservative awakening that Charlie Kirk helped to lead.

Could they also turn the country away from political violence and toward the change philanthropy seeks?

That’s the argument that Manu Meel makes in The Commons this week in the aftermath of the assassination of Kirk, the conservative advocate who led the nonprofit Turning Point USA. Meel leads BridgeUSA, which has chapters at colleges nationwide and organizes campus dialogue around contentious issues such as the war in Gaza. While the media plays up the anger and division over Kirk’s death, Meel sees a counterculture — one that embraces constructive dialogue and rejects the toxic fury of our politics and disagreements.

Students, he adds, are ready to remake the fundamentals of American civic life — change that could have enormous effects as members of Generation Z become CEOs, policymakers, faith leaders, and grassroots leaders. Meel writes: “By investing in campus dialogue now, philanthropy isn’t just preventing the next campus tragedy — it’s seeding a cultural transformation that will strengthen democratic norms for decades.”

Read Meel’s hopeful message.

In an age when the nation’s leaders routinely label opponents as “evil,” can we find a way to disagree better?

Tim Shriver believes we can. In recent years, the chairman of Special Olympics International has turned his attention to the idea that division in America is not the result of our differences. Rather, he thinks it’s a byproduct of how we treat each other when we disagree. Shriver is the co-creator of the Dignity Index, which ranks rhetoric — particularly that of politicians — on a scale to measure the contempt or respect we show one another.

Shriver joins Chronicle of Philanthropy deputy opinion editor Nandita Raghuram to talk about the index and how demeaning discourse deepens our polarization and increases the risk for violence.

Register now for this free, live event on LinkedIn on Tuesday, September 23, at 12 p.m. ET.