Leaders Urge Philanthropy to Provide Sustainable Support Before, During and After Election Years

Fall 2024 Issue of NCRP’s online journal, Responsive Philanthropy confronts philanthropy’s role in getting us to the tumultuous times we live in and what is needed now to move forward well beyond this election year to secure a safe and just democracy for all.

Washington, DC – With the 2024 United States presidential election just mere weeks away comes the real question – will our democracy survive its outcome? Regardless of what happens at the national and state levels, what is philanthropy’s next step?

In this Fall 2024 Issue of Responsive Philanthropy, we hear firsthand the perspectives of movement leaders, organizers, and funders and gain insights on the missteps of philanthropy, lessons learned in real time and visions for the path forward. The recent publication from this 48-year-old philanthropic advocacy organization features intersectional essays from Forward Through Ferguson’s Annissa McCaskill and Jia Lian Yang, People’s Action Institute Sulma Arias, Climate Justice Alliance’s KD Chavez, Fund to Build Grassroots Power’s Denise Collazo, PowerSwitch Action’s Lauren Jacobs, WE ACT for Environmental Justice’s Peggy Shepard, Proteus Fund’s Rana Elmir, National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy’s Katherine Ponce, and Funders for LGBTQ Issues’ Rye Young. The featured artist for this issue of Responsive Philanthropy is Los Angeles-based visual artist Gregg Chadwick.

“Funders should be supporting year-round civic engagement and democracy efforts – not just in election cycles – and move more money faster and earlier like the All by April campaign did earlier this year,” says NCRP’s Vice President & Chief External Affairs Officer Russell Roybal. “It’s impossible to hold on to progress if funding delays require organizations to completely restart their work every other year.”

Democracy Needs Support All Year Around During All Cycles

This fall issue of NCRP’s journal encourages grantmakers to prioritize funding democracy movement groups, not just funding candidate campaigns. It reminds its readers that communities of color, queer communities, impacted communities are often the ones doing the work on the ground to move the country forward. They have the knowledge and insights but without real sustainable support, their work and by effect democracy will be delayed.

As Forward Through Ferguson’s Annissa McCaskill and Jia Lian Yang write, we cannot continue with business as usual or maintain the status quo as a sector if we want to move forward as a nation. “Why are we more often reactionary, rather than proactive in our philanthropy? Why is philanthropy that empowers the disenfranchised most often a response to crisis, rather than the basis of a new, improved approach to resourcing organizations and initiatives? Why, after the crisis simmers down, can we not sit in the real discomfort that we feel, the tension between the world we live in and the one we aim to create?”

INSIDE THE FALL DEMOCRACY ISSUE

The following articles and all past issues of Responsive Philanthropy are available at no cost on NCRP’s website ncrp.org:

10 years after Ferguson: How philanthropy can bridge funding gaps for Black and brown-led organizations

Forward Through Ferguson’s Annissa McCaskill and Jia Lian Yang reflect on this year’s 10-year anniversary of murder of Michael Brown Jr. and The Ferguson Uprising in Ferguson, Missouri. The authors recount how philanthropy reacted then (2014) and how it is reacting now (2024) to funding disparities in Black and brown-led organizations.

5 lessons learned about trust-based philanthropy

In this collaborative piece People’s Action Institute Sulma Arias, Climate Justice Alliance’s KD Chavez, Fund to Build Grassroots Power’s Denise Collazo, PowerSwitch Action’s Lauren Jacobs, and WE ACT for Environmental Justice’s Peggy Shepard center Black and brown voices and utilize the values and principles of feminist leadership in their work funding grassroots power.

A clarion call: How attacks on U.S. Palestinian solidarity movements undermine our democracy

Proteus Fund’s Rana Elmir draws the parallel between the inadequate funding behavior for Black, African, Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian movement groups post 9/11 and the current attacks on Palestinian solidarity movements.

The philanthropic strategies and networks attacking our democracy

National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy’s Katherine Ponce utilizes research, data points and history to showcase just how right-wing nonprofits have built a strong network that are currently attacking our democracy and what progressive movements can learn from their strategy.

First trans rights, then all rights

Funders for LGBTQ Issues’ Rye Young pushes back against philanthropy’s complicity with far-right advances. Young specifically focuses in on how heightened attacks on LGBTQ+ communities have impacted democracy and its very function.

The Fall 2024 Issue of Responsive Philanthropy is one of many ways in which NCRP and its allies are supporting movement groups that are working to build a just and equitable multiracial democracy. The organization’s most recent research brief focuses on what grantmakers should be doing about the skyrocketing costs of voter registration and civic engagement work.

“When its all said and done, funders can play a key role in addressing obstacles that hinder civic and voter participation throughout the year and across all election cycles,” says NCRP’s President and CEO Aaron Dorfman. “Deeper and bolder multi-year investments can not only help groups manage the current moment of crisis, but also create the kind of long-term stability that helps protect democracy and grow opportunities for all.”

ABOUT NCRP

The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) has served as philanthropy’s critical friend and independent watchdog since 1976. We work with foundations, nonprofits, social justice movements and other leaders to ensure that the sector is transparent with, and accountable to, those with the least wealth, power, and opportunity in American society.

Our storytelling, advocacy and research efforts, in partnership with grantees, help funders fulfill their moral and practical duty to build, share and wield economic resources and power to serve public purposes in pursuit of justice.

Together, we can create a just and equitable world where all communities get the resources they need to thrive.