PhilanTopic is now part of the Candid blog

Since 2007, Philanthropy News Digest’s blog, PhilanTopic, has been a “platform for a broad range of opinion and commentary from foundation staff, nonprofit practitioners, and those who simply enjoy a good debate.” After 15 years—and more than 3,000 posts—we are excited to bring that conversation to an even wider audience as part of the Candid blog.

On the Candid blog you will find news, insights, and practical wisdom, along with updates about Candid, our products, and services.

We remain committed to delivering the breadth, depth, and perspective you have come to expect from PhilanTopic.  Philanthropy News Digest will continue to publish Commentary and Opinion pieces as well as articles in our columns, The Sustainable Nonprofit and Career Insights, as well as interviews, book reviews, and our daily editors’ picks of the top news.

Visit the Candid blog for a wide-ranging conversation covering Tips & Training, Trends & Issues, and Data & Insights.

Closing the digital divide: A commentary by Christopher Worman

An unlikely hero of the COVID-19 pandemic? The parking lot. Sitting in cars by shuttered schools, fast food restaurants, and libraries across America, children without internet at home were able to connect to Wi-Fi to access online classes and continue their schooling.

The crisis demonstrated not only the scale of the digital divide that remains across the United States—more than 120 million Americans still don’t use the internet at broadband speeds—but underlined how critical internet access now is to so many of life’s essentials, including health care, remote work, and, of course, education.

To understand how the COVID-19 crisis affected the work of civil society, the nonprofit technology provider TechSoup surveyed its membership and found that, of the nearly 12,000 organizations that responded, four in five said their services were disrupted because their communities lacked internet access....

Read the full commentary by Christopher Worman, co-founder and chief partnership and strategy officer of Connect Humanity.

(Photo credit: Getty Images/SeventyFour)

Review: ‘Benjamin Franklin’s Last Bet’

Philanthropy is about betting on the future. And while certainly not unique to America, American philanthropy has a peculiar and enduring capacity to shape our world and the lives of generations hence. Whether we are supporting disaster relief, refugee resettlement, a community foundation’s scholarship program, or strengthening our alma mater’s endowment, as we engage in philanthropy, we imagine the future lives we are affecting. As Bill Gates once noted in the 1990s, the measure of accomplishment is in the number of lives you can save. Still, few of us would imagine that our philanthropy might reverberate through centuries. Not so, Benjamin Franklin.

In Benjamin Franklin’s Last Bet, Michael Meyer, a professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh, illustrates in vivid detail not only how Franklin—printer, statesman, diplomat, inventor of the lighting rod—was present at the creation of so much of early U.S. history, he was equally essential to shaping its philanthropic character across more than two centuries. Franklin was among the founders of the University of Pennsylvania, as well as Philadelphia’s first free library, its fire department, and hospital—a project he launched using, perhaps, the very first matching grant scheme. Long before Elon Musk made his patents for Tesla Motors open source, Franklin never sought licenses or patents for his inventions—which also included bifocals, the Franklin stove, and improvements to the odometer and the rocking chair—instead viewing their use and dissemination as a public good. He was also the progenitor of what today we call microfinance....

Read the full book review by Daniel X Matz, contributing editor at Philanthropy News Digest.

Shift power to Black-led change: A commentary by Chera Reid and Lulete Mola

The uprising for racial justice that was ignited by the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police still reverberates today. Notably, people with power and wealth seemingly took note, with institutions, companies, and organizations vowing to change and allocate more resources to advancing racial equity and justice. Many foundations made a two-part commitment: to direct more resources to racial equity and justice initiatives and to center Black voices in their efforts.

But Black Philanthropy Month and the 2022 theme of the “Fierce Equity of Now! From Dream to Action” is a higher calling of philanthropy and a sober reminder that philanthropy still has a long way to go. The sector as a whole has not yet made significant progress on these goals. To attain the stated aims of racial equity and justice, philanthropy must follow through on the second part of its commitment and shift power to Black-led change.

This path forward includes social, economic, and political change led by diverse groups of Black people centering the power, interests, and well-being of Black communities that often benefits all communities....

Read the full commentary by Chera Reid and Lulete Mola, co-executive director of the Center for Evaluation Innovation and co-founder and first president of the MN Black Collective Foundation, respectively.

(Photo credit: James Eades via unsplash)

Review: 'How to Prevent the Next Pandemic'

If only I led a government or a nongovernmental organization, then maybe I would be cheering with the same unabashed optimism that Bill Gates reveals in his passionate book about the world’s preparedness—or lack thereof—to prevent the next pandemic. As a private citizen, I am left worried about the world’s ability to move the needle on thwarting the spread of viruses as they arise, especially given the wave after wave of COVID-19 variants, the introduction of monkeypox into our collective viral lexicon, and the resurgence of polio. In short, there is cause for concern.

Indeed, in his 304-page tome, How to Prevent the Next Pandemic, Gates first details how the response to the COVID-19 outbreak was middling at best and could have been exponentially worse. He states matter-of-factly that despite people raising the alarm for decades about novel diseases that could kill millions, the world didn’t respond with sufficient urgency. There wasn’t enough investment in the tools needed to prepare for a pandemic properly, i.e., nations were caught flat-footed, militaries weren’t running large-scale drills, and city, state, and federal governments had no practice outside of natural disasters to combat the spread of a deadly virus like COVID-19....

Read the full book review by Lauren Brathwaite, content editor at Philanthropy News Digest.

 

 

Stop false narratives that sow division and bias: A commentary by Fred Blackwell

The last few weeks, as monkeypox cases continue to rise, I’ve been noticing a disturbing trend start to resurface. The fearmongering we’ve seen targeted at the LGBTQIA+ community around this virus—I have to say, it feels like Groundhog Day. I’m back in the ’80s, when gay men were vilified during the AIDS crisis. I’m back in 2001, when Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian Americans were blamed for the attacks of September 11. I’m back in 2020, when the president called a global pandemic the “China virus,” and violence against Asian Americans skyrocketed.

We cannot—we will not—do this yet again. We’ve got to stop these false narratives that sow division and bias.

I wish everyone suffering from monkeypox a full and speedy recovery. Like many others, I’m angered by the slow public health response to this outbreak and disappointed that—in addition to a painful illness—many affected by this virus are also facing fearmongering and stigmatization...

Read the full commentary by Fred Blackwell, CEO of San Francisco Foundation.

(Photo credit: Getty Images/gmast3r)

Parental involvement in decision making is key to ending the cycle of poverty: A commentary by Anne Mosle

There is an essential ingredient that gives us a real shot at ending the cycle of poverty forever: parents. It is an election year, and we will hear a lot about “doing right by our families,” but one of the best ways we can do right by families is to honor their lived experience by valuing their expertise. That message was at the heart of our Parent Power panel at the 2022 Aspen Ideas Festival: We can all benefit by engaging parents as partners as we design programs meant to keep children and families on a path to prosperity.

Parental involvement in decision making is the key to advancing policies and programs that support families’ strengths and needs.

For example, Connecticut’s Office of Early Childhood now has a Parent Cabinet that started with a manifesto stating: “To ensure that all children have equitable outcomes in education, health, and life, we must view engaging parents and developing their leadership as ‘Mission Critical.’” Colorado’s Department of Human Services has put this into practice with their Family Voice Council in which “[m]embers share their honest experiences and provide feedback as a guide for the future.” The Washington State Department of Children, Youth & Families (DCYF) listens to a Parent Advisory Group which serves as a “sounding board for decisions, ideas and questions that shape the future of DCYF.”

For the past 10 years, Ascend at the Aspen Institute has worked with leaders in these states—as well as across all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico—to move the idea of centering parent voices and lived expertise from the exception to the rule. The next step for nonprofits and philanthropies is to help more policymakers embrace these three core ideas:

Read the full commentary by Anne Mosle, a vice president of the Aspen Institute, executive director of Ascend at the Aspen Institute, and co-chair of the Aspen Institute Forum on Women and Girls.

(Photo credit: Getty Images)

The Black community finds ways to restore dignity: A Q&A with Garnesha Ezediaro, Bloomberg Philanthropies

Garnesha Ezediaro leads Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Greenwood Initiative, an effort to accelerate the pace of wealth accumulation for Black individuals and families and address systemic underinvestment in Black communities.

Ezediaro has worked across the public, private, and philanthropic sectors to design, direct, and scale mission-focused programs, brands, and content that inspire change. She previously served as a senior program officer for the Government Innovation program at Bloomberg Philanthropies and also led global leadership development programs at Verizon Media, delivering training and targeted development programs for over 12,000 employees. Prior to that, she was the communications director for New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu and director of marketing at Brick City Development Corporation in Newark, New Jersey, under the leadership of former mayor Cory Booker.

Philanthropy News Digest asked Ezediaro about the long-lasting effects racism and violence have had on the Black community’s ability to achieve generational wealth and its impact on Black philanthropy, how Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Greenwood Initiative seeks to address racial wealth inequities, the initiative’s mission of reducing wealth disparities in Black communities, its investments and plans for future funding, Ezediaro’s role in the decision-making process, her background working in government innovation and communications and marketing for the mayors of two large urban cities, and her experiences discussing economic mobility for the Black workforce and closing wealth gaps.

Philanthropy News Digest: The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre that occurred in the neighborhood of Greenwood, once known as “Black Wall Street,” took hundreds of lives and stymied the growth of wealth proliferation in the Black community. What impact do you think it also had on Black philanthropy?

Garnesha Ezediaro: Throughout U.S. history, deep-seated racism and violence have shown up and disrupted thriving Black communities. A horrific event like the Tulsa Race Massacre not only immediately robs a neighborhood of life but simultaneously seizes invaluable community assets. In order to recover from such tragedy and to respond to the persisting inequity in housing, health care, education, and employment, Black communities donate their time, talent, and treasures. From places of worship to community groups to local giving circles, we have seen the Black community consistently find ways to restore dignity within their communities and to give to a range of causes and organizations. According to a report from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Black households give 25 percent more of their income annually than white households, and nearly two-thirds of African American households donate to organizations and causes, and their contributions total $11 billion each year....

Read the full Q&A with Garnesha Ezediaro, Greenwood Initiative lead at Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Wage inequity is 'a dream deferred': A commentary by Kyra Kyles

One of my favorite poems of all time is Langston Hughes’ “Harlem,” better known by the compelling question it posits: “What happens to a dream deferred?”

Far too many in the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) community can answer that question from personal experience due to a pipeline of privilege that favors white workers. People of color, particularly those from Black and Latine communities, are locked out of desired careers by a toxic mix of systemic racism and bias; comparative lack of generational wealth; and sparse access to corporate sponsors. This is certainly true in for-profit companies, especially in fields including finance, television and film, technology, music, and journalism. Sadly, it is also a pervasive issue for nonprofit organizations, even though social good and positive impact is at the very center of our missions.

I have no doubt that my colleagues in the nonprofit community want to improve, rather than echo hollow vows to increase diversity and retain BIPOC team members, but no anti-bias training, career fair, or positive intention can trump equitable payment for employees who hail from communities of color. This is critical at every level, from interns up, and it must be a competitive wage....

Read the full commentary by Kyra Kyles, CEO of YR Media.

(Photo credit: Getty Images/DMEPhotography)

'Hidden obstacles' to behavior change: A commentary by Alice Ng

Organizations of all kinds often aim to change people’s behavior by offering incentives or warning of negative consequences. Foundations, governments, and NGOs often rely on lessons learned from programmatic reports or interventions that worked in similar circumstances. But these approaches may fail to address factors that are preventing behavior change in a particular community or situation.

As a result, traditional grantmaking processes and nonprofit strategies sometimes fail to get the results we want because we don’t understand the motivations of the people we’re trying to engage well enough—that is, we don’t see the hidden obstacles. To accelerate progress on addressing big problems, we need to identify the barriers to behavior change before launching or funding a program and committing to a theory of change....

The challenges of bringing about behavior change get trickier with efforts to address systemic issues. Initially successful efforts may stall later on because they introduce new hidden obstacles. For example, research on using small-bore steps—“nudges”—to reduce carbon emissions found that while nudges may result in small improvements, they ultimately decrease support for higher-impact solutions like a carbon tax—by leading people to believe that there’s a quick and easy fix....

Read the full commentary by Alice Ng, senior advisor for fundraising at Multiplier.

(Photo credit: Getty Images/Hayri Er)

Innovate and invest in communities: A commentary by Angela F. Williams

Americans are hurting. More than one million people across our nation have died from COVID-19, a staggering and profound loss. Even as we continue to grieve, the other crises we face—rising costs of living, surging gun violence, and increasing division—can feel like a second pandemic.

The last several years have exposed deep fault lines in our society. As our problems become increasingly complex, so do their solutions. There is no silver bullet that will solve systemic problems like income inequality, hyper-polarization, or poverty. But as CEO of United Way Worldwide, the largest community-based nonprofit in the world, I believe that progress is possible. It starts by reimagining philanthropy to focus on the place where all of our global ills and solutions ultimately begin: community.

Communities are the cornerstone of society. But too often, philanthropies view local investment as a nicety that can be overlooked, instead of a necessary first step in solving global problems. Now more than ever, we cannot afford to abandon the power of local community. We need to innovate and invest in it like never before....

Read the full commentary by Angela F. Williams, CEO of United Way Worldwide.

(Photo credit: Getty Images/kuarmungadd)

Closing the wealth gap: A Q&A with Denise Scott, President, Local Initiatives Support Corporation

Denise Scott has served as president of Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) since December 2021. She joined LISC in 2001 as the executive director of the organization’s New York office and served as LISC’s executive vice president for programs from 2014 through 2021. Prior to joining LISC, Scott served as a White House appointee to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and as the managing director and coordinator responsible for launching the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation.

Philanthropy News Digest asked Scott about settling into her new position as president of LISC, one of the nation’s largest community development financial institutions, how the organization uses its investments to work with local community and government leaders at a time of historic crisis in the housing market and major economic uncertainty, the organization’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and Justice agenda and how it shapes the work, and how and when LISC evaluates its job as “finished” in a community.

Philanthropy News Digest: Since joining LISC in 2001, you’ve seen the organization evolve over multiple presidents’ tenures. How has the organization’s approach to housing policy advocacy changed over that time?

Denise Scott: Our approach has changed in response to market shifts. We started many years back with a focus mainly on multi-family tax credit projects, and then we evolved to a broader housing strategy that included preserving single-family housing, both occupied and vacant, with a real push to focus on home ownership—not across the entire LISC footprint, but in certain strategic markets. I’ll call out New York because that’s where I started in LISC. Over time, we came to focus on both multi-family and some single-family homes, and then we started turning our attention to issues around community resiliency.

That, of course, has tied into disasters like hurricanes. LISC’s focus on rebuilding after disasters has grown to include attention around climate and resiliency to be more proactive.

Read the full Q&A with Denise Scott, president of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation.

Solidarity fundraising, an equity-driven framework: A commentary by Jeff Wokulira Ssebaggala and Annie Lascoe

When Witness Radio in Kampala, Uganda, faced a government crackdown on groups protesting the World Bank-funded Lubigi Drainage Channel, the organization had to dedicate all its capacity to ensuring its team’s safety. This was in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, when funding was urgently needed to continue its mission—in this case, stopping a development project that could force the eviction of dozens of local families. In response, Accountability Counsel, Witness Radio’s San Francisco-based partner, provided support by making introductions to key funders, which enabled Witness Radio to secure both emergency funds and long-term support for their work.

We refer to this joint effort—through a relationship that extends beyond our substantive work together—as “solidarity fundraising.” Solidarity fundraising is the act of leveraging funding relationships for the benefit of peer and partner organizations. By making high-value introductions to aligned funders, we can apply an equity-driven framework to philanthropy, starting at the grassroots level.

Solidarity, not charity

Solidarity fundraising presents an opportunity to subvert the traditional funding model that often excludes marginalized individuals and communities. It enables those of us with greater access to capital and resources to be more effective partners to civil society organizations and frontline communities. By leveraging our connections and resources, we can build a philanthropy ecosystem based on mutual cooperation and provide better support to those who have been traditionally denied a seat at the table....

Read the full commentary by Jeff Wokulira Ssebaggala, country director of Witness Radio in Uganda, and Annie Lascoe, director of development at Accountability Counsel.

(Photo credit: Getty Images/Violeta Stoimenova)

Learning from trust-based philanthropy and participatory grantmaking: A commentary by Kim Moore Bailey and Laura Rodriguez

In 2021, Justice Outside’s Rising Leaders Fellowship program brought together 20 early-career nonprofit professionals, most of them Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC), to get hands-on experience with philanthropy. Fellows had the opportunity to design a $40,000 grantmaking program and decide to whom they would award grants and how they would distribute those funds across the selected grantees. They were invited to examine all the “rules” they knew about philanthropy.

Funded by the Environmental Education Funders Collaborative (EEFC), a network for Bay Area funders, the Rising Leaders Fellowship offered an opportunity for young people—who are often on the receiving end of grants—to reimagine and have agency in grantmaking. Supported by Justice Outside, they discussed wealth disparities generated by capitalism and white supremacy culture; and how trust-based philanthropy and participatory grantmaking can be antidotes to inequities in philanthropy.

What’s more important than what they learned, however, is what they can teach us....

Read the full commentary by Kim Moore Bailey and Laura Rodriguez, president and CEO and chief program officer, respectively, of Justice Outside.

(Photo credit: Getty Images)

Review: 'Choose Abundance'

In his 1989 best-seller, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey coined the terms “abundance mindset,” the belief in a benevolent world rich in resources, and “scarcity mindset,” the belief in a competitive world lacking in resources. Three decades on, most of us are still struggling to choose abundance over a scarcity mindset. Every day, we’re besieged with messages from a consumer culture that encourages the desire for new things and manifests the fear of not having enough. As Lynne Twist notes in her book, The Soul of Money, which Laurie Herrick considers required reading: “This mantra of not enough carries the day and becomes a kind of default setting for our thinking about everything, from the cash in our pocket to the people we love or the value of our own lives.” In this environment, can a nonprofit organization made up of complicated individuals choose abundance? Yes! In her book Choose Abundance: Powerful Fundraising for Nonprofits — A Culture of Philanthropy, Herrick, founder and president of Rainmaker Consulting, reveals step by step how nonprofit staff and their organizations can choose abundance by building a “culture of philanthropy” and reframing their attitudes toward fundraising.

What is a “culture of philanthropy”? After stating her preferred gender-neutral definition of philanthropy, “love of humankind,” Herrick explains, “A Culture of Philanthropy exists when organization-wide attitudes, actions and systems reflect an understanding, respect and responsibility for philanthropy’s role in the success of the organization.” In this culture, all stakeholders within the organization and in the larger community are engaged and active in advancing the cause through their individual strengths. Everyone has something to offer, whether financial assets, time, wisdom, experience, connections, or special skills. A culture based on deep relationships and a common goal opens the door to infinite possibilities....

Read the full book review by Kati Neiheisel, senior liaison at Candid.