To do systemic philanthropy is to invest in the entire value-chain of change, in particular citizen action on the ground. Here are two examples of foundations that are doing it successfully.
Farhad Ebrahimi inherited lots of money from his father. Instead of starting an Instagram channel with a heavy focus on yachts and bikini models he started the Chorus Foundation. The foundation invests in creating new economic, political and cultural power, a fancy way of saying it gives money to social movements and community initiatives. It has spread its money widely, donating to many such initiatives across the United States.
What makes the organization unique is that its founder explicitly talks about the awareness of his privilege, how in some sense he didn’t earn it, and the feeling of being compelled to return the capital back to the society.
The foundation adopts the traditional model of grant applications via concept papers followed by a full application. This is of course contrary to the Altruist League’s philosophy (we believe that donors should be finding causes, and causes should just do what they do best), but is perhaps inevitable for a relatively small operation without the money to invest in dozens of analysts.
The Guerrilla Foundation (GF) is one of my personal favorites. True to its name, it invests in collectives and activist groups that challenge the status quo, from art projects to radical media to eco-initiatives.
GF is Berlin-based, and there are many parallels between it and the Boston-based Chorus. A founder with a sense of mission, a young and gifted team of activists, money invested broadly and intelligently into direct social action on the ground.
Of particular note is the production of cutting-edge thinking on social change, philanthropy, society and all that comes with it on the Guerrilla Foundation’s blog. Philanthropy writing tends to be either wealth-bashing, wealth-worship or something too toothless to be either, and it’s refreshing to read intelligent people proposing innovative and well through-through arguments.
The two foundations above are amazing. If all of philanthropy was like them then our society would be fixed. But all of philanthropy will never be like that.
First, the model that the two foundations push is, perhaps surprisingly, not new. The Ford Foundation already showed, as early as the 1950s, that investment in social action (in particular the civil rights movement) could improve the society directly and significantly. It continues to promote this approach to this day, with its ups and downs. Yet, comparatively few other foundations have adopted the approach, for reasons that can be debated.
Second, and more important, is the concept. In their philosophy and writing, both foundations (and many others like them) use the language reminiscent of religious repentance. To exaggerate a bit, the rich are to become aware of their privilege, admit that their wealth has been unfairly accumulated, return most of it to the society and be happy if they get off only with a warning. This is the kind of language and position that only foundations that don’t need to fundraise can permit themselves, i.e. foundations with guaranteed endowment, typically tied to a single donor. It has absolutely no chance in getting a critical mass of foundations or individual philanthropists to adopt the model.
People need a sense of mission and purpose. Philanthropists are no different. They need an identity that’s beyond that of a morally suspicious money bag.
This doesn’t mean that they need to be revered the way 90% of philanthropy writing reveres them. They should be called out on phony philanthropy and held to account to pay fair taxes. If they earned their money illegally they should go to jail.
Many among those who remain will treat philanthropy as a PR stunt and little will change their mind. But a growing portion isn’t blind to what’s going on in the world, and wants to do something about it. They are discovering how much knowledge, persistence and humility that takes.
The League is there to inspire them through a roughly existential philosophy that emphasizes focusing on legacy, expressing one’s creativity through altruism, and non-financial added value that people who want to change the world must bring. Our gamble is that with time old philanthropy mindset will simply be discarded as cowardly as the philanthropists’ self-image changes irreversibly.
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