8 Reasons Philanthropy & Nonprofits Aren't Doing As Much Good As They Think They Are
Let's be honest with each other, so things can get better
I love working in philanthropy/nonprofits, don’t get me wrong. I feel the same way about this field of work as I do about my flawed country. I criticize them because I love them and thus want them to be better. And somehow, philanthropy and nonprofits have managed to coast along on their “do-gooder” reputations for quite a while, with most people giving them a pass, simply assuming they do good.
The time for blind trust is passing, if it hasn’t already long passed. Because no, we’re not simply “doing good” here… and yes, we have a lot of things to change, if we actually want to.
Read on….
For You: Today’s Main Course
Friends, it’s important that we’re honest with ourselves about the ways we fall short in the work of seeking a better world.
If we can’t see, name, and talk about the problems…
… how will they ever change?
Spoiler alert: they won’t.
We’ll just keep creating problems, harming individuals and their communities, and perpetuating the ills that make philanthropy/nonprofits necessary in the first place.
So let’s not do that, yeah?
Let’s be open to seeing and discussing the problems we’re creating.
Let’s be honest with ourselves.
Let’s name things.
Let’s talk about it.
Here are eight problems I see with our work of seeking a better world.
1️⃣ The DNA from which this work grew, over time, was “helping” those “in need” through “charity.” I’m a social worker, and I didn’t know until my very first class of my Master’s in Social Work (MSW) program that social work wasn’t actually a profession until relatively recently.
The short story is that wealthy White women — who were needing meaningful ways to direct their energy — started creating programs to help people who were not as comfortable as they were (and were, in fact, suffering in various ways).
While this work was much-needed at the time and had its merits, it set a tone for what would evolve from it (our modern-day “industry” of philanthropy/nonprofits): well-off folks choosing to enter into — and “help” (which cannot shake its paternalistic vibe) — communities not their own, those decidedly less well-off.
In other words, we’ve created a whole “industry” centered around othering communities that are already marginalized — thus essentially marginalizing them even more. When we do this, we’re not inviting folks into the joy of community with us, honoring their dignity, or valuing their experience and expertise. Instead, we’re making them a “problem” that “we” must solve.
2️⃣ Donors decide what they will give to. Spend enough time around these parts and you will hear it: talk from foundations of “strategic resets” in their funding decisions, or wealthy individuals lauding things like “effective altruism.” Folks with funds to give have convinced themselves that they should be driving the process.
And I couldn’t disagree more.
Of course, as a professional fundraiser for nearly two decades, I’ve learned to walk this line and play this game as the funders want to. Because I need to, if I want the essential causes I’m fundraising for to get any funds.
But do you see the problem there? The power dynamics are such that the funders hold all the cards. And even though they’re making wrong moves, in the eyes of almost anybody who knows how this approach actually affects real people on-the-ground and will be honest, that message is not getting to them, because there is no real way to do so — at least not without jeopardizing funding.
I wrote more about that earlier this year, when reflecting on how different that dynamic was here in Minneapolis during the traumatic Operation Metro Surge, as our community’s cash simply flowed toward asks arising from community needs — with no strategy first, no funder priorities, no carefully choreographed process. Just a simple reality: 1) community need arises; 2) it’s communicated; 3) it’s funded.
3️⃣ We’ve decided that formal education and degrees are the learning required to do this work. Look at any of the job description requirements. Bachelor’s degrees. Graduate degrees. Even though I have both of those types of degrees myself, I still question their necessity. Of course, a key part of my MSW was field practice. And in so many ways, I’d say that that was the education — not the research, the endless reading, the papers, the writing, the class discussions, the lectures.
Ask me who I think knows the most about addressing and solving homelessness? Someone who has been homeless. Ask me who I think knows the most about making sure families don’t starve? Someone who has experienced perpetual hunger. Ask me who I think has the best ideas to solve the problems within a massive system like foster care? Easy. People who have come up through it themselves.
And that last one is a beaut of an example, because my former client — one I will forever fan-girl — is an organization led by Fosters (their chosen name for themselves) who are actively leading, setting priorities and vision, creating and developing programs, and lobbying our state legislature, passing law after law to improve the system. They don’t have a degree on a diploma to do this. Their “degree” was lived, year after year, as they experienced and were affected by a system that required change. They know what’s needed. They are making it happen. This is the model I want to see spread to more and more places.
4️⃣ Almost every nonprofit talks about “ending” a problem… yet many orgs have persisted for decades, and they always talk about growing as a good thing. Believe me, as a fundraiser, I’m sure that I experienced this even more than folks working in programs. We and our leadership would talk about growth as the goal — in funds raised, in programs started or grown, in buildings procured.
I just have to ask: is growth really a good thing, in this setting?
Growth means more community resources being tied up in this org and issue. Growth means more individual egos being convinced how “needed” the org is — and that their job is to ensure it lasts forever. Growth may very well mean the problem we’re trying to address is actually growing too. What? Do we really want that?
Wouldn’t a more apt goal be shrinking the org? Lessening the problem we’re addressing? Seeing the need for this org’s work… eventually disappear? Oh, I’ve heard folks say this plenty of times. We say it. But we don’t actually live it in practice.
5️⃣ Foundations exist to fuel capitalism. I wrote about this in a full article recently, seen here: Foundations Exist to Fuel Capitalism. I encourage you to go there for the goods. But here’s a sample: money placed into a foundation earns a tax break; foundations then invest millions, to billions, in the stock market; the 5% law is treated as a ceiling, rather than a floor, by foundations; a foundation’s 5% spend includes the operating expenses of the foundation; SO nearly 100% of the basis of a foundation’s existence is dedicated to fueling the stock market; then, funding trickles to the community are an effective, yet paper-thin, mask.
Foundations exist to underwrite and fuel capitalism. And capitalism has never pretended to prioritize communities.
Inside capitalism, people and the natural world are only “resources” to be “used” — and drained of value — in order to create a profit for a corporation and its investors. Profit (or accumulation of excess money) is the ultimate good, in this world.
And thus, fully invested in capitalism as they are, we have to assume the following about foundations: excess money, extracted from and held apart from human and natural communities, is the ultimate good for foundations.
6️⃣ White Supremacy reigns in this “do-gooder” space just as much as it does everywhere else. I don’t even want to say much about this, because it’s just so obviously true, if you’re paying attention, and so much has already been said and written on this topic.
And yet… I’m pretty sure that some of you will question this assertion.
So I’ll just say this: can we at least agree that White Supremacy still reigns in our world at large?
And that, if that’s true — and if the field of philanthropy/nonprofits still takes most of its operating cues from the wider world (most especially business norms) — then that means that widespread norms centering White Supremacy make their way into the “do-gooder” space too?
7️⃣ We talk about “relationships” all the time, but we don’t actually have them. If I had a dime for every time I’ve heard a colleague in this work talk about how much we center relationships… I’d be rich by now. But here’s the thing. We’re nowhere near as good at actually having real relationships with each other as we are at talking about it.
Real relationships require honesty. Real relationships are mutually giving and receiving. Real relationships have accountability baked into them. Real relationships require shared responsibility. Real relationships prioritize trust. Real relationships don’t continue without deep, open communication. Real relationships welcome conflict, because they know they aren’t actually possible without it. Real relationships are constantly airing out and re-negotiating power dynamics.
Do any of those qualities sound like the “relationships” that exist within philanthropy/nonprofits? In case you’re wondering: no. No they don’t.
8️⃣ Anti-Blackness is persistent and powerful in this space. And that is different than the White Supremacy I mentioned above. And it is also different than racism. If you haven’t heard about this reality within philanthropy/nonprofits, that means you don’t have any Black friends… or the ones you have don’t trust you enough to tell you about what they experience. Because it’s there, in spades.
A Black friend was working for an organization led by and centered on another community of color; the anti-Blackness she experienced there made her leave the job within months of starting. Another brilliant Black friend leads a nonprofit with an essential, sorely needed mission; even I am so frustrated at how hard it is for him to bring in the funding he needs to keep the org afloat.
If you really care about finding out more, you’ll do the research. And you’ll find evidence everywhere, like here.
Or even better, if you’re in Minnesota, you’ll attend the gathering I’m hosting later this month on this topic — where we’ll hear directly from two Black speakers sharing their experiences, and we’ll collectively put our heads, hearts, and souls together to start healing the issue.
If you really care, what you won’t do is let your eyes glaze over when you see this topic, because you just don’t see how it affects you… or if it’s even a real issue that you need to care about. Because you know what? That’d be anti-Blackness too.
………………….
SO, y’all.
Whadaya say?
Let’s Solve Our Collective Problems Together, Shall We? And Let’s Start with One We Discussed Here
Some problems seem so big, so hard to fully understand, so pervasive and entrenched… that they seem like they will never end.
These are exactly the kinds of problems that require the collective wisdom of a group.
So these are exactly the kinds of problems that we will tackle together at our For the Love…! events.
Our very first one is coming up later this month:
➡️ Anti-Blackness in Nonprofits/Philanthropy: the Reality, the Healing
➡️ Thursday, July 30th | 6:30-8:30PM
➡️ Community. Food. Learning. Meaningful discussion. Working toward a better world, together.
➡️ Black Garnet Books | St. Paul, Minnesota
✨If you’re local to the Twin Cities… you gotta come!✨
Conversation: Your Real Real
I really want to know your more detailed and nuanced thoughts, too. Let’s start a conversation on this topic. Visit the comments section!
Community-Weaving for Fundraisers
Life’s been LIFING lately, yes?! Now is the time to reach out and connect with others. When you’re embedded in supportive community, even the most difficult things don’t seem so hard.
Your community is waiting for you!
Advice when you need it. Been-there, done-thats. Commiseration. Support. A place to vent. Guidance and mentoring.
All of this — and more — is what happens throughout each month…
… at Community-Weaving for Fundraisers.
Just community-based fundraisers. Gathering for (virtual, on Zoom) lunch together. Twice a month. Year-round. Chatting and supporting each other via WhatsApp in between lunches. Being there for each other.
All you need to do is show up and be present… while I guide, facilitate, organize, and create the container.
Practice: Make It Yours
Reflect on things you’ve observed in your own experience.
Are there times you’ve seen someone who thinks they’re helping… but is definitely not helping? If so, could you have told them that?
If not, why?
If yes, did you?
If not, why?
How can you start addressing this kind of thing more?
How can you be more open to others giving you this sort of feedback?
Get quiet.
Reflect.
Be honest with yourself.
A Gift to Take With You: Something to Sit With
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Really appreciate you sharing this. Thoughtful content like this helps everyone learn. We recently wrote about non profit financing qualifications and hope it adds value to the conversation: https://thesemblereview.substack.com/p/organizations-that-qualify-for-non?r=8ofna4
All of these 🔥 #4 - I see this too often. Orgs solely focused on downstream work while never asking why more clients are showing up every day.