How Philanthropic Investment can Help Address Injustice
Social injustice is one of the leading conversations in our world today. With attacks on civil rights in recent years, there’s now a heightened focus on the lack of equality in the very systems that make up the foundations of our society. Education is one such foundational system where inequity persists.
In the United States, education is a popular focus for high-wealth philanthropists. According to a new survey, more than a quarter of their charitable donations goes to education causes, including early childhood and post-secondary education. However, not much money trickles into the social justice side of education.
Instead, philanthropy will have to start focusing on promoting education with a social justice foundation to help drive equity in education in our society. Here’s how:
New Models of Philanthropy
The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy urges philanthropy to step up its social justice efforts, saying foundations have persistently underfunded marginalized communities. A 2016 NCRP report found that underserved communities received less than ⅓ of foundation funding. The report concluded a severe lack of empowerment and addressing the root causes of injustice and inequality in underserved communities.
But there's a framework to better engage with social movements and advocacy groups and direct more philanthropic resources to education. These efforts to create more impactful 21st-century philanthropic power-sharing and partnership models may be part of the antidote to effective social justice education in our schools. Some significant characteristics of these new models include:
Educate on power. Power is the focal point of these models. The goal is to build the capacity of underserved and marginalized communities to have the ability to change systems and policies and counter entrenched interests by helping them acquire and leverage political, economic and cultural power.
Fund nonprofit “ecosystems” rather than focus areas. Often, foundations tend to focus on one or several areas and often operate in silos. Social justice philanthropy promotes the idea that foundations need to adopt more holistic, multi-issue strategies on various fronts to successfully address complex problems in areas like education. Philanthropy needs to support a web of nonprofits operating in social change “ecosystems.” Donors may support broad-based community “anchor institutions” that collaborate with or regrant to smaller education nonprofits or social justice community groups. The new models encourage foundations to recognize and strengthen existing nonprofits.
Prioritize frontline grassroots groups. Institutional philanthropy has often focused on supporting larger, well-known nonprofits that concentrate on changing federal policy as the best way to achieve impact in education. New models support building the capabilities of frontline grassroots groups working in communities to solve problems is more effective. It’s a place-based approach that addresses complaints in underserved communities that philanthropy overlooks grassroots organizations, particularly those run by people of color, despite their deep local roots.
Let nonprofits take control. In traditional philanthropy, leading foundations often develop a strategy of change, sometimes with the insights of academics who identify key factors. Then they seek nonprofits to help achieve the desired outcomes. New power-sharing partnership models aim to democratize decision-making and foster ongoing operating support over restricted project funding. Nonprofits inform donors where their organizations need help and why they need it to bring change. General organizational support gives nonprofits the option to shift funds from one area to another as they learn what strategies work and what doesn’t. It recognizes that social movement building can take a long time and requires flexibility.
Invest in more advocacy and civic engagement work. Many philanthropic foundations and people avoid supporting advocacy work, assuming it will compromise their tax status. In reality, they have the luxury of supporting nonprofits engaged in organizing, civic engagement, policy advocacy and litigation; funders can also do this work themselves. Community foundations have even more options and may lobby or support lobbying within certain limits. The easiest, most straightforward way for foundations to fund nonprofit advocacy work is to provide general operating support. Social justice affinity groups say foundations play a critical role here but are currently underperforming in this area.
Reassess impact measurements. NCRP’s Vice President and Chief Engagement Officer Jeanné Lewis mentioned that philanthropy’s siloed data efforts frequently fail to recognize the complexity or impact of social movement on multiple areas across many constituencies. For example, she cites environmental funders who do not consider some nonprofits’ initiatives to be environmental justice work because their activities can’t be categorized into existing program categories. New partnership models aim to help determine which metrics to use and what constitutes progress.
Build relationships and feedback systems. These new models also focus on building trusting and fair relationships with communities. Switching to long-term support methods and moving more decision-making to grantees may free up staff time for more skilled work, in-depth conversations and exchanges with communities. They learn more about local dynamics, and how to devise joint strategies to better support local communities and the foundation’s goals.
The rise of these new approaches in social justice support and how we educate people from early childhood reflects a generational shift in philanthropy. Many new funders have grown up in a world of dynamic networked systems and incorporate more tech-savvy knowledge to help us connect better. Today’s philanthropists want to tackle the root causes of problems and systemic issues. They are more comfortable participating, distributing power, building social movements, and changing systems for a dynamic future in social justice and education. As those goals gain more momentum, we may see a revitalized philanthropic sector with a mission more dedicated to education and equality.