At a time of unprecedented change, as the threats we face grow more profound, all of us in philanthropy face the same question: How can we make a difference?
There’s little question about what the threats are: emboldened authoritarian movements in the United States and around the world, climate change, rising racism and nativism, growing economic inequality, concentrated corporate power, and assaults on personal freedom and bodily autonomy — especially for women and LGBTQIA+ people.
The thread connecting these seemingly disparate challenges is a crisis of democracy. Multiracial democracy is a new phenomenon in the United States, dating back only to 1965 and the passage of the Voting Rights Act. It is fragile, and yet to be fully realized. The great challenge for philanthropy in our times is how to protect and expand multiracial democracy, without which progress on any issue is impossible.
This means protecting and strengthening basic democratic institutions, like the right to vote, the right to protest, or the right to hear and read the truth about our history. It also means ensuring workers have a voice in the economy, that women and LGBTQIA+ people are free to make decisions about their bodies and lives, that people of color and immigrants are able to be full and equal participants in every aspect of society, and that we are not allowing a small number of fossil-fuel companies to overrule the wishes of billions of people for a livable planet.
This challenge suggests the need for shifts in how grant makers approach our work. Among the moves that must get underway:
Place our focus on building power for those historically denied it. Democracy is a matter of power — whose voice gets heard and whose voice does not. There are many kinds of power. But the most important form of power for oppressed people throughout history has been “solidarity power,” the power of large groups coming together, or simply put, people power. As we decide where to invest grant dollars — as well as our influence — we need to ask ourselves whether we are helping people affected by social problems to shape the future.
Technocratic solutions designed at a distance will fail, both because they lack popular support and because they fail to tap the wisdom, energy, and vision of communities. That’s why we at the JPB Foundation are doubling down on our grants to support work that builds the power of those who have been denied it to challenge and change oppressive systems, and advance visions of a more just, democratic, and sustainable world.
More grant makers must recognize that one of the most effective ways forward is to invest in organizing and social movements. At its heart, organizing builds solidarity power and brings the abstract concept of democracy to life. In community after community, grassroots leaders are advancing bold new visions for how we organize our society and our economy. And they are achieving historic victories at the state and local level.
And as generations of young people are entering civic life with passion and commitment to build a better world, we in philanthropy need to do more to help them meet the moment.
Organizing and movement building have been underfunded. They are becoming more important as many tools that changemakers have relied on no longer work as well as they used to. Today, litigation is harder because the courts are stacked against groups seeking redress for injustices. Disastrous decisions by the Supreme Court reversing key gains and restricting democracy show the limits of this strategy. And simply presenting great research and evidence to the public and policy makers isn’t achieving the same effect it once did in this era of intense polarization.
To solve the big challenges of our time, we can’t build power in issue siloes. The problems facing the globe today are deeply interconnected. There are simply too many worthy issues to address separately, and issue-based groups are too fragmented to achieve systemic change.
Oppressed people live multi-issue lives. They need multi-issue organizations that they own as vehicles to build and express their power.
Organizations like Faith in Action, Jobs with Justice, People’s Action, and Sunrise Movement — all grantees of JPB — have fostered intersectional visions and are trying to build a mass base and power. Philanthropy can do much to help people build power to change oppressive systems through community and worker organizing that exemplifies the best of the craft, but also innovates to address the realities of our times. As grant makers, we must stretch outside our comfort zones and engage people and communities that are not already part of the social-justice choir. We must expand the pro-democracy coalition to win.
Social change won’t happen unless grant makers also invest in strengthening the infrastructure of today’s movements. That means making grants to groups nurturing diverse emerging leaders who combine effective strategy with open-heartedness and in visionaries developing new ideas and frameworks to address the daunting challenges of our time. Investment in talent, infrastructure, and innovative ideas has not commanded as much attention from philanthropy as it could, and that’s why our movements are not as prepared as they need to be to win the battles ahead.
We come to this view from the vantage point of long experience supporting and doing community organizing. We’ve been intensively examining what makes sense going forward at a pivotal time for our foundation.
Barbara, who now leads the JPB Foundation, will become president emerita in February, as Deepak becomes president. Deepak had the chance to honor Barbara’s commitment to social movements when, as leader of Community Change, she was named the organization’s champion in philanthropic leadership. That same year, Rep. John Lewis was honored as Community Change’s champion in public service. During an event to honor them, Barbara had a chance to tell Representative Lewis personally that her first ever philanthropic gift as a young person was a $25 check to the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, which he led and which was one of the key organizing groups that helped bring about the civil-rights revolution and make the promise of multiracial democracy more real.
As we head into the foundation’s next chapter, our commitment to building power in the spirit of John Lewis is unwavering, as is our ethos of partnering with our grantees based on mutual respect. There is much left to do to figure out how we go about the work, and we look forward to conversations with many movement and philanthropic partners as we chart our next steps.
Despite the daunting challenges facing our globe, we know that philanthropy has a special opportunity to seize this moment — and to support the work of courageous organizers and leaders rebuilding democracy from the ground up.
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