How Philanthropy Can Help Beat COVID19
By Rudy Espinoza
This morning, one of our funding partners hosted a video call with several community organizations to gather information on what community groups are hearing on the ground. I’ve been grateful to the handful of institutions that support Inclusive Action who have reached out via email, calls or text to check in. One of the questions our host asked this morning was, “how can philanthropy step up during this time?”
For those of us that work in the nonprofit sector, we cautiously take a step back when a funder asks us broad questions about what we need, but I think the COVID19 pandemic is shedding a bit of our perceptions and fears and confronting the power dynamics that exist between grantor and grantee. We’re recognizing that we’re all in this together and that we all play a role, whether you’re a front line grocery store worker, a street vendor sharing information in the community, or a funder distributing disaster relief grants. This is what solidarity looks like.
It goes without saying that the philanthropic sector is a vital source of revenue for mission-driven organizations. In 2018, foundations pumped $78 Billion into nonprofits across the country (second only to individuals). Foundations will continue to play an important role during this crisis but my hope is that they embrace a creative mind and think differently about how to deploy resources. Foundations need to work in solidarity with community members on the ground. These are the things that came to mind this morning when our call host asked, “how can philanthropy step up during this time?”:
Be the constant, not the variable - This is a mantra that my team at Inclusive Action uses, but it applies very much to philanthropy during this time. The $78 Billion that goes out to support nonprofits every year is usually just the interest made off of the endowments that these institutions hold. Can you believe it? Just the interest. With the stock market in sharp decline, nonprofits are worried that philanthropy may tighten their belts. Now is not the time to lower giving, but to increase it. Much of the philanthropic sector itself was created as a way to make amends for the private sector’s flaws; now is the time to live up to its intention.
Grants can be leveraged - This week, we’ve been working with partners to identify ways to get direct cash assistance to entrepreneurs like street vendors and families that can’t access federal or state resources. While a grant or two may not be able to solve all our problems, it can be an important “down payment” to unlock public sector resources. Philanthropy can use its resources to pressure other institutions, companies, or governments to match their contributions so their grants can have a greater impact. In this way, philanthropy can serve as an advocate for a bolder vision in multiple sectors. (“This is what we’re putting on the table, what about you?”)
Support organizers and policy advocacy - COVID19 is revealing the inadequacy of our public infrastructure and the lack of policy that supports low-income families and workers. In my opinion, nonprofits exist because of the lack of a strong public sector that isn’t doing what nonprofits are currently doing. The ultimate goal of nonprofits should be for us to “work ourselves out of a job” by institutionalizing equitable policies and programs in our public sector. Philanthropy should be emboldened to support community organizers, policy researchers and other practitioners that are seeking to establish policies that protect people now. Because of the IRS guidelines prohibiting lobbying, many philanthropic partners avoid advocacy all together. The fact is that nonprofits can do a great deal to educate policymakers and government departments on how to support vulnerable people. Philanthropy should fund this important work.
There is much more that philanthropy can do. I’m hopeful that COVID19 not only creates new habits around handwashing and wellbeing, but also new habits on how we show up for each other --- a new solidarity.