#DisruptPhilanthropyNow! Blog

Many mutual aid groups are popping up as unincorporated efforts with little formal structure and no established fiscal sponsor relationship. Platforms like Venmo offer opportunities for these ad hoc groups to bring in community donations, but access to institutional philanthropic resources is immediately limited given requirements around tax status or a track record for an applicant. Institutional philanthropy is historically - and intentionally - structured to create a power imbalance through which a privileged few determine the allocation of resources…

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, there have been several articles/blogs written about philanthropy’s response and what philanthropy’s response should be. Some thought pieces focus on the need for the sector to center racial equity and systemic change, many provide a call to action, and a few offer innovative ideas for this time. [2]

If key stakeholders are: 1) not clear in their analysis about the rights and conditions of NFL players, 2) look at how that connects the NFL’s ability to authentically lead a social justice initiative, and lastly 3) lead an initiative that shifts decision making power of how resources are being used to address these issues, then the NFL Foundation’s 90M pledge to Inspire Change and its efforts with Roc Nation are nothing more than smoke and mirrors. Perhaps we can use this moment to call a movement mic check rather than a fact check to learn lessons from Jay-Z’s philanthropic partnership with the NFL in order to assess how this initiative is contributing to the issues it says it wants to address moving forward.

In November 2018, 25 activists, organizers, fundraisers, donors, and other supporters of movements for racial, gender and economic justice gathered at the Watershed Center in Millerton, NY at the 3rd annual Old Money New System (OMNS) community of practice retreat.

First, in order to achieve a truly participatory process, a foundation must be prepared to cede real power to the participatory panel in the design and implementation of the grantmaking process. Some foundations create a restrictive "container" around which the actual decision making becomes limited in breadth and scope—it’s an advisory conversation, or specifically-sought input around a certain question or proposal, and not grantmaking with breadth of authority.

The program officer told the provider to submit an application for a larger grant, one perhaps one-and-a-half to twice as large as before. The grantee was told to submit the paperwork. The program officer would handle the rest. Do not worry, the money would be there, they were told.

But that didn’t happen.

Within Our Lifetime Leadership Council decided to share our story and requests (listed below) publicly. We do so not to humiliate, or wag our finger, or to even assume that now they will respond to us. We do so because we are saying loud and clear – enough!

The #DisruptPhilanthropyNow! Campaign urges the W. K. Kellogg Foundation to reflect on its grant-making practices and make the necessary changes to address the harm done to CDI and the Battle Creek community and prevent it from occurring again.

Community foundations, the very foundations that should be directly accountable to local communities, are engaging in practices that fundamentally go against their values. They are not funding grassroots organizing while avoiding discussions about structural racism and dominant preferences in philanthropy, and decreasing the power of unions

This is an accountability intervention and its purpose is to disrupt how we typically relate to each other and speak truth. We hope to collectively transform these relationships as well as the resource distribution system. This is also a wide-loving invitation to our colleagues, friends, and comrades in the racial justice movement saying: enough, let’s share our stories, let’s organize together in the philanthropic sector to demand a just distribution of resources, and commit to racial justice that is reflective in all funder practices.

Our story is being told, not just the story happening between grantees and foundations, but as one of the many stories with devastating impacts for numerous organizations, especially people of color-led organizations, and communities of color. Though our story describes exasperating funding practices, more than inherent racially inequitable practices, as a people of color-led network, we experience differing impacts. Following this blog, other organizations and individuals will share their stories of inequitable practices, some sharing the funders’ name, others not. If you are interested in sharing your story, scroll to the end of the blog for more information.

In Part One of the #DisruptPhilanthropyNOW blog series, Within Our Lifetime and Old Money New System Community of Practice issued an invitation for courageous and collective action, joined by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy to movement building groups and racial justice and healing organizations. We urge groups to challenge philanthropy to develop racially just grant-making practices and transform structures, so we can collectively tackle structural racism and white supremacy.

A graduate student interviewing me for a paper recently asked “How could we force foundations to transform their internal culture and open wider conversations about equity to as many stakeholders as possible?” I told her we can’t force foundations to do anything, unless or until the entire nonprofit sector calls a general strike.

If all 501c3 organizations refused to take money from institutions whose only obligation is to pay out 5 percent of assets per year toward charitable causes, presumably they would be compelled to come to the bargaining table.

Seventy-six years ago, United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, a piece of legislation, among many historically, that criminalized an ethnic minority. As a result, my entire paternal family was incarcerated without due process. My father was born behind barbed wire on U.S. soil. In so many ways, this history has shaped my future.