This summer, EPIP DC hosted a series of three webinars, plus one pop-up webinar, with the goal of helping grantmakers (re)educate themselves about the history, purpose, and potential of philanthropy to advance equity and justice. At a time when more institutions are finally confronting their roles in perpetuating inequity, we were grateful to provide a forum for learning and conversation.

We invited Allen Kwabena Frimpong, Managing Partner with AdAstra Collective, to lead us on this discovery journey. Here is some of the historic context he shared as part of the series:

• Philanthropy has fueled the accumulation and privatization of wealth.
• This private wealth and power was accrued through colonialism, enslavement, and extractivism.
• Today philanthropy largely upholds white supremacy and inequity through under-cutting and/or funding (movement capture) the most radically transformative work. 
• A just transition for philanthropy means shifting philanthropic practices away from extraction and towards regeneration.
• This requires shifting our relationship to power and decision making.

Questions to Explore

The series raised many questions for further exploration:

• Self-Organizing and Mutual Aid
  • How can we shift from a top-down funding approach to supporting networks, including organizations that are not registered as 501(c)(3)s?
  • People are self-organizing outside of nonprofit organizations to support mutual aid efforts. How can philanthropy resource these efforts?
  • What would look like for communities to handle wealth redistribution, rather than institutional philanthropy?

• Redistributing Power
  • What can you start doing to redistribute wealth and power to the communities who have been most harmed by extraction and exploitation?
  • How can we support partnership, delegate power, and nurture citizen control?
  • How can philanthropy’s powerful share their power more permanently, rather than grant it with the ability to take it away?

• Accountability
  • Who is accountable to whom in the funder-grantee relationship?
  • What do regenerative relationships look like within a funder-grantee power dynamic?

• Rethinking Philanthropy 
  • In a more just and equitable world, would we have “donors” and “beneficiaries”?
  • Would we have notions of “charity” and “benevolence”?

The biggest question of all might be, “How do we operationalize the redistribution of power?” The series proposed several solutions for repairing harms and harnessing philanthropy as a force for good:

• Participatory grantmaking
• Distributing wealth to individuals via gift cards, which may not be considered taxable income
• Mutual aid networks

Pop-Up Webinar

We’re grateful to have been introduced to Dr. Cutcha Risling Baldy, who shared her expertise and experience in a pop-up webinar titled, “Philanthropy as Decolonizing Anti-Racist Practice.” She invites her audience into radical imagination:

• In thinking about what the future may look like, she explained the need to share revolutionary ideas: "Nothing can be until someone stories it into being...let's say big things."
• She also reminds us that the work isn’t always easy: "Decolonization does not have to be comfortable for everyone. Some people are always looking for excuses to not do it."
• But our purpose—seeking restorative justice—is clear: "There will be moments when we don't know the answer, or when not everyone benefits. We do it because it's the right thing to do." "Decolonizing is mandatory. That's it."

You can find a full recording of the pop-up webinar here. For further learning on decolonization, Dr. Cutcha Risling Baldy recommends the book “Decolonizing Methodologies” by Linda Tuhiwai Smith and the article “Decolonization is not a metaphor” by Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang. You can also find her own book and publications at www.cutcharislingbaldy.com.

Explore More

You can find the slides for the other three sessions here:

• Session 1 Slides 
• Session 2 Slides
• Session 3 Slides

You can find many of the readings recommended throughout the series here:

• Original Indigenous Economies (Video)
• Mark Zuckerberg wanted to help Newark schools. Newarkers say they weren’t heard (Article)
• Philanthropy, Civil Rights, and Movement Capture with Megan Ming Francis (Podcast)
• Movement Capture or Movement Strategy? (Article)
• The Price of Civil Rights (Article)
• Don’t Look Behind That Curtain (Article)
• Justice Funders Choir Book 
• Justice Funders Choir Book Self- Assessment
• Movement Mic Check Report to Support Movement Building
• Movement Cycle Worksheet
• DisruptPhilanthropyNOW! Blog

To keep up the conversation, you can join the online discussion space or browse the past and ongoing Twitter chatter about just transitions for philanthropy by viewing the hashtag #OldMoneyNewSystems.