Sometimes, reports change the game.
It wasn’t quite Watergate, but NCRP’s Criteria for Philanthropy at Its Best report (published under Dorfman’s leadership) pushed funders to focus more on marginalized communities while directing more support to grassroots efforts. Many in the sector initially rejected the idea that universal principles could be applied to a field as broad and diverse as philanthropy. Now, many of the report’s ideas are conventional wisdom within grantmaking.
Despite the sunlight that the NCRP report provided for the sector, more recent data demonstrate that little had changed in terms of who gets funded. Dorfman, in his role as a major thought leader in philanthropy, continues to advocate that funders rethink the ways that money and power shape the sector.
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