Just as we were sending out my December letter I learned that Inside Philanthropy, one of the major publications covering charitable giving, awarded me its “Philanthropy Critic of the Year” Award saying, “The Leonard and Sophie Davis Fund president is also chair of the Crisis Charitable Commitment, an effort to get the super-rich to give more money away. Davis is a relentless critic of wealth hoarding, and has zero patience for excuses.” Guilty as charged. Yet I admit to being surprised since there are so many outstanding people who are critical of the philanthropy industrial complex, many of whom share my wish that ultra-rich foundations and individuals didn’t make it so easy to be criticized.
I think there are three things that distinguish the work I do: The first, as IP suggested, is the focus on hoarding, or from the flip side, pushing donors to give more by taking the charitable commitment. (Not a single donor or foundation mentioned in the IP awards list has signed the Crisis Charitable Commitment, though we will keep working on it and know MacKenzie Scott would qualify if anyone wants to make an introduction.) Second, I am not an outsider, as I run a foundation (mid-sized with $150 million in assets), so throwing stones comes at some risk, but also with close to fifty years (yikes) of experience. And third, perhaps most importantly, I am not just criticizing, but thanks to an amazing group of donors–CCC signers–we are setting an example for reasonable and responsible philanthropy and encouraging other donors to follow suit.
Which leads to my other big news: the Crisis Charitable Commitment passed the billion-dollar mark in charitable contributions by its 108 signers who are meeting the charitable commitment standards!! To be precise, $1,166,413,000 to nonprofits, including 31% to promote racial justice and 21% to promote democracy.
These numbers represent three years of giving: 2020-22. It is significant in that the charitable commitment standard is set at approximately twice the average rate of charitable giving over the last few years (actually, almost forever), which means that these committed donors have given approximately $500 million more to nonprofits than what typical donors would give.
The propensity to hoard among the ultra-rich, and the fact that our tax and charitable laws encourage it, is at the root of many of society’s problems, and something we are dedicated to changing.