Send us Fan Mail

In this episode we talk to historian and political scientist Claire Dunning about her book Nonprofit Neighborhoods: An urban history of inequality and the American state, and her work on the history of radical philanthropy in Boston. Including:

-What are the “nonprofit neighborhoods” described in the book?
-Can participation in nonprofits become an alternative to involvement in the mainstream structures of civic participation, rather than a route into them? Does this undermine the Tocquevillean ideal of voluntary associations as “nurseries of democracy”?
-Is there any danger that in becoming partners with/agents for the state, nonprofits undermine their own ability to speak out? Is this due to active stipulation by state funders, or more through self-censorship by nonprofits?
-Have government efforts to involve nonprofits been driven in part by a desire to bypass the scepticism that might otherwise have been aimed at big government-delivered welfare and social reform programmes?
-To what extent was the involvement of nonprofits in programmes like the War on Poverty designed centrally (i.e. by Washington policymakers) and how much was a result of local implementation?
-What does the history of FUND (Fund for Urban Negro Development) and BUFF (Boston Black United Front Foundation) tell us about the challenges of trying to use philanthropy to address deep-seated issues of racial inequality?
-Is it ever possible to have truly “no strings attached “ giving, or are there always hidden strings?
-What can history tell us about the risk that foundations and other funders co-opt social movements by deliberately introducing grant stipulations etc aimed to direct the focus of the movement away from controversial areas or soften their tactics?
-What can the FUND/BUFF example tell us about current debates between donor-centric and community-centric fundraising?
-What value can a historical perspective can bring to philanthropists, funders and non-profit professionals?
-Are there limits to the utility of historical comparison in understanding the present? What should we take into account or be aware of?
-What is the value of historical edge cases?

Related Links:

• Claire's book Nonprofit Neighborhoods
• Claire's article in Nonprofit & Voluntary Sector Quarterly, " No Strings Attached: Philanthropy, Race, and Donor Control From Black Power to Black Lives Matter" (currently open access).
• Claire's 2018 paper "Outsourcing Government: Boston and the Rise of Public–Private Partnerships"
• Philanthropisms podcast with Emma Saunders-Hastings
• Philanthropisms podcast with Tyrone McKinley Freeman
• Philanthropisms podcast with Maribel Morey
• Why Philanthropy Matters guide to philanthropy & the welfare state

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode Rhod talks to Jake Ferguson and Vanessa Thomas, two of the Committee members of the Baobab Foundation - a new member-led endowed grantmaker that is seeking to address issues of systemic racism and intersectional injustice in the UK. Including:

• How did the Baobab Foundation come about? 
• What has been the progress so far?
• Has the momentum behind addressing issues of racial justice that we saw in the nonprofit world following the murder of George Floyd in 2020 been maintained?
• Why have Black and minority-led organisations historically lost out when it comes to philanthropic funding?
• How is Baobab foundation trying to shift power to those who would traditionally have been seen as the recipients of philanthropy?
• Why has Baobab decided not to adopt a traditional charitable structure?
• How is Baobab trying to influence the way other funders work?
• Does the philanthropy sector in the UK have a diversity problem?
• Can Baobab play a longer-term role in offering a route into grantmaking for more people from Black and minority communities?
• Why is building an endowment such an important aim of Baobab?
• Can Baobab play a useful role as an intermediary in overcoming some of the barriers in relationships between more traditional/risk-averse funders and grassroots organisations/social movements?
• Are there challenges in trying to bring together different types of knowledge (e.g. lived experience and professional expertise)? How do you navigate these?
• Why was it important for Baobab to adopt a horizonatal, non-hierarchical structure?
• How can measurement be a useful tool for organisations that receive funding, and not just a means to reinforce the dominance of the funder?
• How can donors, funders and CSOs get involved with Baobab Foundation?

Related Links:

• Baobab Foundation
• Philanthropisms podcast with Sara Slaughter and Derek Mitchell
• Philanthropisms podcast with Derek Bardowell
• Philanthropisms podcast with Sadaf Shallwani
• WPM article on charities and politics

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode we take a deep dive into the relationship between philanthropy and business. Commercial ventures have always played a key role in generating wealth for people to give away through philanthropy, but is there more to it than that? And what are the promises and pitfalls of trying to combine profit with purpose? Including:

• Does philanthropy need to be "more business-like"? What does this actually mean, and why has the idea  continued to be so influential?
• What can the history of fundraising show us about how charities have sometimes pioneered new commercial techniques?
• What sort of template do the Quaker business leaders of the C19th offer for how we can combine business with philanthropy?
• Why have marginalised communities often led the way in blurring the lines between commerce and philanthropy?
• Why did Milton Friedman object so strongly to the idea that businesses have social responsibilities, and how influential have his ideas been?
• Does the emergence of new corporate forms such as the B Corp suggest a new golden age of combining profit and purpose?
• Should we be wary of the claims of tech company owners that their commercial ventures produce more social good than traditional philanthropy?
• Will Yvonne Chouinard's decision to hand Patagonia over to non-profit ownership start a new trend among business-owner philanthropists?
• What can history and global context tell us about the pros and cons of non-profit business ownership?
• The surprisingly long history of social finance: what can Pliny the Younger's land deals, the collapse of the C18th Charitable Corporation and C19th scepticism about Octavia Hill's affordable housing plans tell us about the good and potential bad of impact investing today?

Related Links

• Why Philanthropy Matters Guide to the history of philanthropy and business
• WPM article "The Business of Philanthropy: Patagonia and non-profit corporate ownership"
• Roddy, Strange & Taithe (2018) "The Charity Market and Humanitarianism in Britain, 1870–1912" (Open Access online version)
• Milton Friedman's 1970 NY Times article: "The Social Responsibility Of Business Is to Increase Its Profits"
• Philliteracy Twitter thread on the history of social investment
• Philanthropisms podcast with Tyrone McKinley Freeman
• Brealey (2013) "The Charitable Corporation for the Relief of Industrious Poor: Philanthropy, Profit and Sleaze in London, 1707–1733" (£ Paywall)

Send us Fan Mail

In our last episode of the year, we take a look at some of the key issues and trends affecting philanthropy and civil society right now and offer some thoughts on what to watch out for in 2023. Including:

•  The impact of the ongoing cost-of-living crisis and possible recession on philanthropy, everyday giving and the work of charities.
• Polarisation and political division making it harder for philanthropy to engage constructively with criticism and the need for change. 
• More mainstream media focus on philanthropy. (And therefore more scepticism and critique?)
• More big donors supporting efforts to develop everyday giving.
• A new generation of celebrities (Youtubers, sports stars etc) reclaiming the word “philanthropy” for themselves? What impact might this have on wider perceptions of philanthropy?
• More ultra-wealthy people make public pledges to give the majority of their wealth away.
•  Blurring the lines between individual and corporate philanthropy more than ever
• Ongoing tensions between “strategic” and “trust-based” philanthropy.
• More donors and funders experimenting with models that enable them to shift power as well as money e.g. participatory methods, funding grassroots movements etc.
• Debates about balancing urgency and patience in philanthropy.
• Division in the Effective Altruism movement  in the wake of Sam Bankman-Fried’s downfall?
• Tainted donations: will more organisations reject ‘bad money’, or will they try to find ways of justifying taking it in light of pressures on finances?
• The balkanisation of social media in the wake of Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover.
• Is cryptophilanthropy dead in the water?
• Will nonprofits start to make use of new generative AI tools like Chat-GPT? What new possibilities and challenges will these bring?
• Will layoffs and restructuring across many tech companies open up an opportunity for nonprofits to recruit new talent and skills?

Related Links

• Philanthropisms episode on the downfall of Sam Bankman-Fried
• Dylan Matthew's Vox piece "How effective altruism let Sam Bankman-Fried happen"
• WPM Nov 2022 newsletter
• Philanthropisms episode on the Cost-of-Living Crisis (with Angela Kail from NPC)
•  Philanthropisms episode on platform philanthropy
• WPM article on Yvon Chouinard and Patagonia
• WPM article on charities, campaigning and politics
•  WPM article on Effective Altruism
• WPM article on Blackbaud and the NRA
• Rhod’s piece for NPC about AI and grantmaking

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode we take a look at a few of the biggest stories from what has been a notable newsworthy couple of weeks for philanthropy - focusing on the fallout from the spectacular implosion of crypto billionaire and high profile Effective Altruist Sam Bank-Fried. We also take a look at a big philanthropy pledge from Jeff Bezos and the latest on Mackenzie Scott's radical no-strings-attached big giving. Including:

SBF:

• What the hell has happened in the SBF story?
• What impact might this have on wider efforts to promote the idea of cryptophilanthropy?
• Will SBF's downfall lead to further calls to clamp down on big money donations in politics, given his prominent support for the Democracts in recent years?
• Is it likely to mean more skepticism about philanthropic funding for journalism, given that some feel SBF's significant donations to news outlets led to him receiving less critical coverage?
• Does his downfall present an existential crisis for Effective Altruism (EA)?
• Should we distinguish between different ways of understanding EA: EA-as-movement, EA-as-ideology, EA-as-academic-field? What is the likely impact  on each of these?
• Do EA movement leaders have questions to answer about whether they were complicit in what was going on at FTX, or just naive? And what are the ramifications of either?
• Did SBF's EA beliefs lead him to adopt a radical "end justifies the means" view that allowed him to justify bad behaviour?
• Is this situation a killer blow for EA's "give to earn" idea?

Scott & Bezos

• How excited should we be about pledges to give big in the future?
• What details do we have about what Bezos is actually planning to do?
• Why does the idea that "giving money away is hard" have such a long history? How is Mackenzie Scott challenging this idea?
• How should we understand "effectiveness" when it comes to philanthropy?
• Why has Bezos given $100m to Dolly Parton...?

Related Content

• Rhod's Alliance Magazine piece, "Effectively over: What Does Sam Bankman-Fried’s downfall mean for philanthropy and Effective Altruism?"
• Vox, "Effective altruism gave rise to Sam Bankman-Fried. Now it’s facing a moral reckoning".
• SBF's ill-advised interview with Vox's Kelsey Piper
• Evan Huber's EA Forum post, "We must be very clear: fraud in the service of effective altruism is unacceptable"
• Why Philanthropy Matters article, "Why Am I Not an Effective Altruist?" 
• Philanthropisms podcast on cryptophilanthropy
• Philanthropisms podcast on the philosophy of philanthropy
• Rhod's piece on "Marcus Rashford, Dolly Parton and public perceptions of Philanthropy"

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode, Rhodri talks to Sara Slaughter, Executive Director of the W. Clement and Jessie V. Stone Foundation, and Derek Mitchell, CEO of Partners in Schools Innovation about their relationship as funder and grantee, and how they have worked together to move towards to a new focus on equity and justice. Including:

• How and why has Stone Foundation changed the way it does grantee convenings? What do they get out of it as a funder, and what do grantees get out of it?
• How difficult is it as a funder to convene without being directive?
• Do we need to shed some of the technocratic language that tends to dominate philanthropic funding?
• What is “radical humility” and why should funders embrace it?
• Do we need to redefine what counts as success and failure in grantmaking?
• Is racial injustice such a big/cross-cutting issue that it should not be seen as a cause area, but rather as something that is the responsibility of ALL philanthropic funders and nonprofits? What does this mean in practice?
• In trying to convince philanthropic funders of the need to shift power is it better to make a moral case (i.e., that they should do it because it is “the right thing to do”) or a practical one (i.e., that it will make them more effective as grantmakers)?
• Are there challenges for traditional grantmakers when it comes to bringing communities and people with lived experience into decision making processes?
• How do you balance the value of experience and the value of expertise?
• Is the process of giving power away uncomfortable by necessity?
• Is there a danger that even well-intentioned funders inadvertently distort the work of their grantees by virtue of the choices they make about what to fund and how to fund it? How can funders check their own power and thus avoid this risk?
• Is it always best to shift power? Or are there situations where funders should “lean into their power”, because they are better placed to undertake advocacy or influencing?
• How important is physical proximity in making trust-based relationships work? 
• How can funders and grantees manage the tension between urgency and patience?
• Is philanthropy a reflection of those “circumstances of economic injustice” that Dr Martin Luther King identified, and therefore too often part of the problem? How can we make it be part of the solution?

Related Content

• Sara and Derek’s comment piece for Philanthropy News Digest, “Building trust with grantees with ‘radical humility’”
• Grantmakers for Education’s case study on W. Clement and Jessie V. Stone’s grantee convenings, “Equity as a Verb” 
• W. Clement and Jessie V. Stone Foundation website
• Partners in Schools Innovation website
• Philanthropisms podcast with Sadaf Shallwani
• Philanthropism Podcast with Derek Bardowell
• Why Philanthropy Matters guides on core-cost funding, measuring impact, and short vs long-term

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode we explore whether it is always necessary to say thank you for a philanthropic gift, whether it might sometimes be problematic, and the implications of how we choose to recognise donations. Including:

• If we view  philanthropy as a duty of justice, rather than a charitable choice, does that mean we have a right to expect it and therefore don't need to be grateful?
• Does this apply to all philanthropy, or only to certain cause areas (e.g. inequality and poverty?)
• Is it just a pragmatic reality that we need to express gratitude to donors in order to keep them giving? Or does this sacrifice important principles? How does this relate to the debate over "donor-centric" vs "community-cnetric" approaches to fundraising?
• If a donor expects or demands gratitude for their gift, does this become a problem? (And conversely, if the thanks is freely given is that OK?)
• How has the expectation of gratitude historically been used as a tool of social control?
• Is it appropriate to show thanks to an everyday donor giving a small gift? If so, is it paradoxical to argue that we should show less gratitude to a major philanthropic donor?
• If donor/recipient relationships are more equal (e.g. as within mutual aid traditions) is it OK to show, or expect, gratitude then?
• Is it possible to have mutual gratitude even within uneqaul funder/recipient relationships?
• What can history and anthropology tell us about the relationship between giving, reciprocity and gratitude?
• Is an expectation that a recipient of a gift should reciprocate in kind better than an expectation of gratitude? Does this rule out gifts where there is no realistic prospect of reciprocating?
• What is the history of commemoration in the form of statues, plaques and naming rights?
• Does this represent a problematic institutionalization of expectations of gratitude, or is it a natural response to a generous gift (and a crucial fundraising tool?)

RELATED LINKS:

• Philanthropisms podcast episode with Emma Saunders-Hastings
• Philanthropisms podcast episode on tainted donations
• Philanthropisms podcast episode on the philosophy of philanthropy
• Philanthropisms podcast episode with Ben Soskis
• Jane Addams, "A Modern Lear"
• Video for "Charity" by Skunk Anansie
• Emile Beneviste, "Giving and Taking in Indo-European Society"
• Spencer Jordan's PhD thesis on Edward Colston:  "The development and implementation of authority in a regional capital : a study of Bristol's elites, 1835-1939"
• Philliteracy Twitter thread on the history of commemorating donors

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode, Rhod talks to Martha Lackritz-Peltier, General Counsel of nonprofit technology specialist TechSoup, about using tech to overcome some of the barriers to cross-border giving and the localization of international development. Including:

• What is the UN’s Grand Bargain? Why is this important?
• Why has it not been delivered on so far?
• Where does the reluctance of INGOs to cede control to local CSOs come from?
• Lack of trust/fear of fraud & mismanagement? 
• Unwillingness to relinquish power? Force of habit?
• Not knowing how to do it?
• How does NGO Source aim to address this problem?
• Are the biggest challenges in gathering and providing data on NGO equivalency technical, political or cultural?
• How do funders and grantees use this data?
• What steps need to be taken to protect NGO data and make sure it is not mis-used?
• What responsibilities do platforms bear for the choice of which organisations do and don’t make it onto their lists? 
• What are the key barriers to making a platform like NGO Source work at scale? (i.e. political/regulatory issues, buy-in from funders, buy-in from recipient orgs, technological challenges?)
• Are governments (in the US and elsewhere) actually keen to encourage and facilitate cross-border giving (given that it often results in reduced tax take in their own countries for benefits produced elsewhere)? #
• What is the most compelling argument for why governments should support cross-border giving?
• What barriers do international financial regulations (AML, CTF, sanctions etc) present to cross-border giving?
• Is there a danger that through supra-national bodies like FATCA, the US ends up imposing its own views and values on the rest of the world when it comes to philanthropy and civil society?
• What should we make of the promises of various new and emerging technologies (e.g. AI, blockchain etc) to “revolutionise” international development and cross-border giving?
• Is there a danger that technological solutions risk leaving behind smaller CSOs and grassroots organisations? 

Related Links

• TechSoup's website
• NGOSource on Twitter
• Martha's article on "Due Diligence in an Increasingly Remote World"
• Philanthropisms podcast with Sadaf Shallwani from Firelight Foundation
• Philanthropisms podcast on "The Platformisation of Philanthropy"
• Philanthropisms podcast on "Cryptophilanthropy: Boom or Bust?"

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode Rhodri is joined by Angela Kail (Director of Consulting at New Philanthropy Capital (NPC)) to take a look at the growing cost of living crisis in the UK (and beyond), and what means for philanthropy, grantmaking and the work of civil society organisations. Including:

Impact on charity finances

• What will the impact of inflation be when it comes increasing costs (e.g. staff costs, energy, food, building materials, leisure equipment etc)?
• What impact will inflation have on decreasing the value of reserves or longer-term contracts/grants?
•  Will any of the govt measures announced so far (e.g. capping energy bills) help charities? Are they enough? 
• What will the impact of rising interest rates be on charities?  Will any of the govt measures announced so far (E.g. capping energy bills) help charities? Are they enough?
• Is charities’ ability to fundraise going to be affected?

Increased demand for services

• Where are we going to see the most acute demand for services in coming months?
  • Direct support for those in poverty (e.g. food banks, warm spaces)
  • Advice and help (e.g. CAB, specialist advice for those dealing with major illness, disability etc)
  • Indirect effects (mental health, physical health, domestic violence etc)

Impact on everyday giving

• Will we see fewer people giving, or the same people giving less?
• Is there a danger that levels of donations remains stable, but their value decreases in real terms as inflation rises? Does this mean we actually need to encourage more giving? And does this present a major challenge in the current economic climate?

Impact on HNW philanthropy

• Should we expect any direct impact of the cost of living crisis on HNW giving? If so, is it likely to go up, or down?
•  Is there potential for philanthropy to play a role in helping charities survive the cost of living crisis?
• What are the dangers of seeing philanthropy as a potential solution here? (e.g. is there a risk of validating policy decisions, or hiding the true impact of cuts?)
• What are the practical challenges? (e.g. Lack of knowledge/experience of HNW fundraising, unequal distribution of donors around UK, increased competition for fundraising)

Impact on grantmaking

• What impact will inflation/interest rates etc have on grantmakers?
• Could funders be spending more from their endowments?
• Should funders add inflationary top-ups to existing gifts/grants?
• Would it help if funder simplified grantmaking processes?
• Why is unrestricted funding so importan? 
• How can funders use data (from NPC, 360 Giving etc) to help ensure grantmaking is targeted at areas of greatest need?

Related Links:

• NPC's Confronting the Cost of Living Resource Hub
• NPC's annual conference NPC Ignites 2022
• NPC's Local Needs Databank
• Pro Bono Economics/CAF briefing on inflation and charities
• CAF polling on public intentions to reduce charitable giving
• FT article, "Charities underpin the UK’s social safety net as cost of living crisis bites"

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode we talk to political philosopher Emma Saunders-Hastings about her new book Private Virtues, Public Vices: Philanthropy and Democratic Equality and some of the big questions that philanthropy raises for philosophers and political theorists. Including:

• What is the distinction between distributive and relational concepts of equality? 
• Many modern critiques of philanthropy focus on the former, but there is a rich history of exploring the latter (by people like John Stuart Mill, Jane Addams etc). Why have we forgotten this tradition? And why is it so important to revive interest in these questions?
• What should we make of examples where philanthropy is based on unequal relationships but still produces positive social outcomes? 
• In terms of  relational inequality is there any difference between everyday donations  and those of big money donors? Or do both run the risk of perpetuating unequal relationships between individuals?
• Is rejection of the idea of gratitude on behalf of the recipient a necessary part of seeing philanthropy more as a matter of justice than of charity? Is there any danger that in doing so we lose something important about the reciprocal nature of giving? (Or, more pragmatically, that we lose an important part of what keeps people giving?)
• Can an increased emphasis on everyday giving help to counter concerns about the anti-democratic impact of big money philanthropy?
• Does philanthropy have any value as a “nursery of democracy” (a la Tocqueville)?
• Does a focus on this aspect of philanthropy dictate prioritizing particular kinds of activities or causes (e.g. volunteering rather than cash giving etc)?
• Do any of the efforts to make philanthropy more democratic by adopting participatory grantmaking or embracing traditions of mutual aid address the concerns raised in the book?
• Is Effective Altruism particularly prone to criticism that it is paternalistic and furthers relational inequality, since it prioritises measurable outcomes dictated by donors over  empowering recipients?
• What value can historical or philosophical perspective bring to our understanding of philanthropy?
• Do critiques of philanthropy too often confine themselves to the realms of ideal theory, or fall into the trap of comparing worst-case examples of philanthropy with idealized conceptions of government? How do you avoid this risk?

Related Links:

• Emma's Book Private Virtues, Public Vices: Philanthropy and Democratic Equality
• Emma's paper on Frederick Douglass and the campaign against the Free Church of Scotland's acceptance of money from slaveowners: “Send Back the Bloodstained Money”: Frederick Douglass on Tainted Gifts
• Emma's post on EA in a forum for the Boston Review: "Imposing conditions on gifts to poor people can be undemocratic".
• Philanthropisms podcast on "the philosophy of philanthropy"
• Philanthropisms podcast with Maribel Morey.
• Philanthropisms podcast on "tainted money"