Will Philanthropy Be Trust-Based By 2024?

For those of us who work in philanthropy, we hold two contradictory truths: we engage in this work because of its potential for incredible impact, but the very practices and roots of philanthropy create and reinforce inequity.

Pull any two philanthropic headlines from this last year and you can see both: the values we’re striving to take action on are being undermined by the very structure we’re working within. If before 2020, a dim light shined down on the rusty, outdated practices of our sector, flood lights now illuminate the need for change.

Looking at the year we just had, there were funders who met the moment by giving more, and with less restrictions. This progress is heartening, but is it enough? There seems to be a hard-to-fathom lag time for too many foundations between knowing there’s a need to change, and actually changing. John Esterle, Co-Executive Director of The Whitman Institute, captured the dual reality we’re witnessing in his Center for Effective Philanthropy blog post, “Foundation Leaders, It’s Time to Shrink the Gap Between Words and Deeds":

“What continues to surprise and frustrate me is the glaring gap between words and deeds on the part of foundation CEOs. While CEOs believe multiyear (general operating support) is an effective way to support nonprofits—and the majority favor increasing this kind of support—most leaders don’t provide it, or only provide a small amount.”

The truth is, if we truly want to transform philanthropy to be a sector we are proud of, we need to start by committing to a longer-term vision of alleviating structural and interpersonal power imbalances. In the coming year, the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project will continue to partner with philanthropic serving organizations to provide more intentional programming and networking opportunities to help funders put these values into practice for the long haul.

Our project was founded as a five-year initiative with the goal of creating a more equitable nonprofit-funder ecosystem. With one year down, and four more to go, we’re asking ourselves: what will philanthropy look like in 2024 when we close our (virtual) doors? Will we have a sector that has confronted inequities and actively worked to change entrenched processes, behaviors, and beliefs? Will the network of trust-based funders have transformed from individual advocates calling for change to trust-based as business-as-usual?

We hope there is no turning back on the progress our sector seems to be making toward a more trust-based approach. Please join us.

This post was originally published on the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project’s newsletter.