Taking Off Blinders: How the Insurrection at the Capitol Changes My Grant-Making Perspective
I had a clever column worked out to open 2021, one that would detail my New Year’s resolutions to be a better grant maker. I had talked with the colleague who illustrates these dispatches for the Chronicle about the most amusing ways to show me as cleareyed and resolute.
By Lisa Pilar Cowan
Contributor
Nonprofit Influences on Trump Deserve Condemnation
The insurrection at the U.S. Capitol this week is a reminder that we can’t allow charitable organizations to become “moral launderers” for anti-democratic policies, writes the head of a nonprofit loan fund.
Philanthropy Can’t Replace Our Broken Government — but It Can Help Rebuild It
The Trump administration’s failures during the pandemic have revealed government’s essential role in protecting the public welfare. Philanthropists should work to restore that role, rather than simply stepping in to try to fill the breach.
By Loren McArthur
Contributor
Foundations That Want to Support Local Journalism Should Take a Close Look at Alt Weeklies
For relatively small investments, philanthropy could help preserve some of the most important local journalism around—and fend off growing rightwing “news” sites.
By David Wallis
Contributor
Indigenous peoples are risking their lives to protect the forests the world needs to maintain a healthy planet. But we can’t do it alone.
In Defense of the Jewish Future Pledge
Endowments like this one are not some nefarious plot to control the world from beyond the grave. They are simply a way to set aside money to protect the values and institutions we care about for future generations.
Elizabeth McCormack: the Legacy of an Unofficial Power in Big Philanthropy
McCormack, who died in December at 98, was an adviser to the Rockefeller family and served as a trustee of many big foundations and nonprofits. She was one of the first women to have so much power over the distribution of big money, writes Gara LaMarche, her friend and a former president of Atlantic Philanthropies, on whose board she served.
By Gara LaMarche
Contributor
Buzzwords for 2021: Hope for a Better — and More Predictable — Year
From how we care to how we collaborate, the buzzwords we can expect to hear next year reflect a wary world edging toward recovery.
By Lucy Bernholz
Contributor
President Obama’s Lessons for Nonprofit Leaders: Advice From ‘A Promised Land’
The former president’s remarkable memoir is a guide for all of us who need to make difficult decisions during these especially challenging times.
By Mark J. Pelavin
Contributor
The ‘Jewish Future Pledge’ Is Not the Hanukkah Gift Philanthropy Needs
Some 200 wealthy philanthropists so far have signed a new pledge committing to devote at least half their estates’ charitable funds to Jewish causes. But this blatant effort to control the future has potentially dire consequences at a time of enormous economic struggle.
By Lila Corwin Berman
Contributor