by Colin Greer

Michael Edwards is right to be critical of entrepreneur philanthrophy, both in his March essay, “Philanthrocapitalism: After the Goldrush” published on openDemocracy.org and in the book on which it draws, Just Another Emperor: the Myths and Realities of Philanthrocapitalism. This form of philanthropy is indeed full of misconceptions, overblown expectations, and inexperienced (mis)application of market conventions to social-justice activism. Gara LaMarche, in his April response, “Philanthropy for social change,” is also right to argue that the critique of philanthrocapitalism should not allow conventional philanthropy by default to be portrayed as “the” effective and pristine social-justice partner. Yet these two positions leave untouched the fact that the acquisitive agenda of business success is a dangerous substrate for funding social-justice organizations. The insatiable desire to create and possess wealth – also known as greed – remains the source of much of the world’s troubles. At the same time, much of philanthropy has been produced by the very acquisitive drive it is trying to deal with.

That’s the challenge – especially in an era where, more and more, public problems are expected to have private solutions. The trends are clear: public services are increasingly privatized; wealth increasingly stays in the hands of those who make it; and social reform increasingly becomes dependent, philosophically and practically, on private wealth.

The how, not just the what
Thus the question of how philanthropy can be put to more effective use to achieve greater social justice must begin with recognizing that philanthropy is a creature of the profit-driven market, which immediately raises a further question: how much of a corrective can it be to the present unjust system? The answer begins by recognizing that social-justice philanthropy must seek to develop strategies able to lead to a forceful mandate from the public for governments to pursue a social-justice agenda. That means including support for cross-sector activism to build a powerful opposition force which confronts government and moves it towards an agenda of achieving ever greater social justice. The agenda must be developed through local policy experimentation and the gradual transfer of that to the national and global stage. The demand for change from the bottom up is as necessary to philanthropic purpose as support for top-down policy-building. Foundations must invest in advocacy of two kinds that contribute to:
• Organizing on behalf of people living in severe conditions
• Organizing by people living in severe conditions.

At the heart of any such movement are those who suffer injustice, who organize to oppose it, and who build organizations that transform victims into empowered agents. When successful, such movements can produce extraordinary leaps of progress, even in the most daunting times. If an ever-expanding constituency for change is to be built, there must be links between grassroots organizing and policy development.
This means that foundations should support both intra- and inter-sectoral dialogue across professions and across race and class boundaries (boundaries that philanthropy has yet to challenge seriously). Meanwhile, at the community level, new policy models and tools must be developed to reform economic and governance systems that might lead to a new social contract. This is a period where there is no clear alternative to global capitalism or super-corporate politics. But that vacuum is being addressed and answers are being invented by both base-building activist organizations and think-tank and advocacy groups.
The New World Foundation focuses its grantmaking on such base-building organizations, which are often desperately short of resources. In a recent survey, we found that among more than fifty base-building activist organizations (some of the strongest in the field by our lights), close to 90% were dependent on limited foundation support, with minimal sources of other tax-exempt money, and many of their executive directors and senior staff lived very close to the poverty line.
For foundations who think of themselves as practicing social-justice philanthropy, attention must be paid to the “how” as well as the “what,” to the evolution of sympathetic organizational practices that press beyond funding social-justice projects to establishing philanthropic institutions that are themselves social-justice organizations working in partnership with others, including grantees in base-building community activism.

Colleagues, not patrons
The New World Foundation has evolved a series of basic principles that defines our approach to becoming a reliable and trusted partner of social-justice advocates. Those principles include:

• Accountability to social-justice activists, including building grantee participation into the foundation’s decision-making. We have taken seriously the proposition that we must aim to be the change we seek and that this is as important a goal for the foundation as for its grantees. To do that, we have chosen to be accountable to those we fund, recognizing that such accountability is our choice, since there are few legal requirements for philanthropic accountability.

We have, over time, moved our board from family and friends of an original donor to a board made up mostly of people of color and individuals who have been, are, or might be grantees of the foundation. This board both gives the foundation legitimacy in the field and ensures that its decision-making includes the experience of work on the ground.

• Sharing risk with grantees. Social-justice activists work in organizations that are, for the most part, desperately underfunded, with a chronically overworked senior staff. The risk of burnout is ever present and every budget year brings the risk of shrinkage. The foundation has tried to share that risk by maintaining a high payout level, usually twice the required legal minimum. We do not operate on the principle that our long-term survival is the most significant consideration in the use of our resources.

• Finding a balance between assessment and partnership through reciprocal responsibility. We aim, not always successfully, for reliable and respectful communication with grantees; this demands of ourselves speedy, clear and supportive standards when asking grantees for information or responding to their requests for information and help from us. The NWF supports organizations for the long haul (thus no “three years and you’re out”). We fund only with general support grants, not project grants, and we encourage and support collaborations among grantees, trying to limit competition for resources and maximize solidarity. We commit our staff to supporting the fundraising efforts of grantees from colleagues with whom we have closer relationships.

The criteria for evaluation are jointly devised by our field staff and our partners/grantees. The consequent strength of these relationships is crucial to the assessment of effectiveness and the development of strategy. We do not select on the basis of written proposals, and we do not judge on the basis of written reports. We aim to be colleagues, and we demand from our grantees leadership and democratic participation in respect of both their organization and our work.

• Stability in the organizational life of grantees who are dependent on foundations. We’ve learned that social-justice leaders often work close to the edge of poverty, as well as to the edge of exhaustion. While we can’t make a great difference to the overall level of compensation in the field, we can create space for spiritual and physical recovery and opportunities for intellectual re-engagement with theory, history and networking by providing sabbatical awards which provide both respite and encourage the development of secondary leadership. At the New World Foundation the fellowships are awarded by a panel of former fellows, which helps build mutual respect, confirms the value of the other’s work, and offers more opportunities to become part of long-term movement building.

This does not mean that we are never high-handed, nor always make decisions our grantee allies cheer. But it does mean that we, and a few solid colleague foundations, have begun to establish an order of criteria and practice, which recognizes the need for foundations supporting social-justice work themselves to grow into social-justice organizations – just like their grantees.

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Colin Greer is the Executive Director of the New World Foundation. He lives in New York City. This article is adapted from an article that originally appeared on OpenDemocracy.org..

IMAGE by Rini Templeton, www.RiniArt.org.