Guest Blog: Ellen Dorsey
Alan Davis is on sabbatical, returning to work on April 1, 2024. During this time, his monthly letters have been written by three distinguished colleagues: Gabriela Sandoval, Executive Director of the Excessive Wealth Disorder Institute; Larry Ottinger, civil rights attorney and WhyNot Initiative senior advisor; and Ellen Dorsey, former Executive Director of the Wallace Global Fund.
After over 20 years in philanthropy, with the last 16 spent as Executive Director of the Wallace Global Fund, I feel deeply privileged to have had the opportunity to support movements for racial, gender, economic, and climate justice. While I have been honored to collaborate with amazing, deeply intelligent, and dedicated colleagues in philanthropy, I am more concerned than ever that the systems, norms and dominant practices of our sector are not fit for today’s challenges. I do not believe philanthropy is spending resources at the scale needed in time, is not advancing strategies that address the intersectional threats, nor building countervailing power through justice-centered movements. In some cases, we are even driving the harms we profess to address.
Throughout history there have been profound periods of grave global instability. We are on the cusp again. We need to steel ourselves for what lies ahead. Fascism is rising across all parts of the world and democratic norms and institutions are getting more fragile every day. Dangerous conflicts threaten to engulf more countries and regions with unprecedented consequences for global political, economic, and social stability. Human rights violations are also escalating, as civic space closes. Fossil fuel and other economic interests are battling against the forces fighting to save a viable planet. Shocking levels of wealth for a tiny few are intertwined with the explosion of poverty and economic injustice for the majority of the world’s population. And dis- and misinformation are creating nearly impenetrable ideological bubbles, where discernment of facts and truth are a casualty. An already weak system of global governance is struggling to advance solutions against vested economic and political interests and is largely ignored.
These frightening trends are not separate; they are intersecting and compounding at a massively accelerating rate. Yet, this moment is replete with possibility because justice is rising and with it the opportunity for a new era. Justice is both a profound motivating principle for intersectional activism, a force for fostering systems based on equality, and a counter to rights under siege. Across the world workers are demanding economic justice, women are demanding reproductive freedom, youth are demanding urgent climate justice, AND all are coming together in new forms of solidarity and methods of organizing to advance innovative strategies and solutions.
It is when movement organizations are tied deeply to community organizing, to economic experimentation for community and collective ownership, to systems of mutual aid, and to conflict resolution, restorative justice, and healing, that new norms and new power arrangements can emerge.
What does this moment mean for philanthropy? Philanthropy, too, faces dramatic changes. Levels of obscene wealth – far too often built by tax shelters and avoidance – are creating major new flows of philanthropic resources. Sometimes they are so large that donors struggle to disburse funds rapidly or responsibly enough, resulting in large gifts that grow the size and power of NGOs. Leaders on the frontlines of social, economic and environmental change are calling on philanthropy to dramatically change historic practices of disproportionate funding to large NGOs, who often spend more on self-perpetuation than system change, and move the money to movements. They are also calling for donors to cede power to partners to direct funding flows, rather than setting strategies in board rooms. And they are calling on foundations and donor advised funds to open up the black box of their investments, as the financial system drives much of today’s harms. Instead, philanthropy is being called to bring advocates and movement leaders to the table as true partners, to get the money to the ground with transformative and sustained funding flows, support experimentation and alternative models, and to center justice in all that we do.
So how DO we change to respond to this historic moment and support the forces of justice rising?
As individual donors and as a sector, we must address fundamental questions, no matter how uncomfortable. Do we have a power analysis that drives our giving and fundamentally gets at changing our failing systems? Are we giving at levels befitting the threats? Are we driving harms that we ask our grantees to solve? Should we be working to shift power away from philanthropy to strengthening government?
Do we have a power analysis? There are powerful actors that direct, control and massively benefit from today’s failing systems. Do we have an analysis as to what it will take to weaken or transform systems of power, what are the strategic pressure points that will unlock change? What power is required to confront abuse of power and injustice? How are our strategies building the power to usher in change? Who does not have power or requires more capacity, strength, scale and connections to effectively shift systems? Each donor should test whether their approaches and strategies are commensurate to the threat and timeline required for change.
Are our giving levels sufficient and justifiable? Are we giving enough to meet the spiraling threats? As foundations, is it morally justifiable to only payout 5% of our assets each year, when we likely made historic returns from a market that boomed based on exploitation of people and the environment? Should donors to DAFs, be allowed to shelter assets and not pay out grants? If the world is going to hell in a handbasket, is perpetuity of foundations or DAFs justifiable? Every donor, philanthropy as a whole, the public and our government must debate anew what level of giving is ethically required in this moment.
Are our investments driving harm or serving the public good? Are our investments advancing our goals? If we receive charitable tax status to serve the public good, does that apply to our investments? Or are we invested in corporations that are driving the very harms that we ask grantees to solve? Do our investment advisors and CIOs have personal, vested economic interests in maximizing returns at any social or environmental cost? Should we change their incentives or their influence over investment direction? Could we use investable assets to build equity and justice, create economic opportunities for our partners, help solve climate change or other mission-related problems? Each donor must determine what constitutes a fair return and which investments are appropriate for a nonprofit, mission-driven institution.
Are we working towards a world where there is less philanthropy and better government? Can the growth in our philanthropy be delinked from an economic system driving historic levels of inequality? If the tax system drives more philanthropy and deprives government of resources, how should that change our funding priorities? Should we shift our funding to those nonprofits and movements fighting for economic system change? Should we contribute our voice to advocacy for higher taxes on the excessively wealthy and for strong government programs that serve the common good?
None of these issues are new and many donors grapple with these interrelated questions. But if we believe our political, social and economic crisis are teetering and driving unacceptable harms, then it is obvious we cannot continue business as usual. Issues of spending more or spending out, transforming the investments, and funding to support movements fighting to transform the economic system must all be on the table.
The Crisis Charitable Commitment is playing an important role in transforming philanthropy in these ways. By calling for the wealthiest donors to pledge increased giving at much higher levels – which includes spending out entirely, it addresses the urgency of the moment and the need to change our philanthropic practices.
With so much at risk and so much opportunity for real change, philanthropy needs to let the money flow now like never before. It must deepen resources to communities fighting abuses of economic and political power, creating alternative models, and building power within and across movements. The best shot at having new norms burst through and form durable, sustainable and just systems is to support the forces of justice rising across the world. Ultimately in doing so, philanthropy might just weaken its power in the process and become the agents of change the world requires.
Ellen Dorsey was Executive Director of Wallace Global Fund for the last 16 years and now serves as a Senior Advisor to the Fund, while writing, agitating and serving on boards, including the Excessive Wealth Disorder Institute.