Readers Offer Reflections and Praise for Nonprofit Advocate Pablo Eisenberg

Pablo Eisenberg, who died last month, touched the lives of countless people in the nonprofit world. In response to the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s coverage of his death, several readers wrote in to share their memories of the social-justice warrior and philanthropy watchdog. Here are two of their reflections.

Eisenberg Insisted That Nonprofits and Foundations Could Do Better

Pablo Eisenberg was best known for his passion for social justice and for speaking uncomfortable truths. He was revered and feared. Pablo believed strongly in our collective ability to make the world a better place, which he expressed as extreme kindness to students, friends, and colleagues in distress and with harsh criticism to philanthropic leaders he felt weren’t doing enough.

I met Pablo in 2001 when I joined the staff of the Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership at what was then the Georgetown Public Policy Institute, now the McCourt School of Public Policy.

Pablo was the center’s senior fellow, and I was the new director of executive education, a position that Pablo thought was bogus. Pablo felt the creation of a nonprofit management executive certificate program was ridiculous. The word “management” drove him crazy. But when I became the center’s director a few years later, Pablo was my greatest champion and my harshest critic.

Whenever Pablo invited me to breakfast, I knew I was in for another one of our verbal jousting matches. While we ate our omelets and brioche, he would ream me out for whatever was on his mind at the moment: kowtowing to my funders or not participating in a student strike — which I should have.

I, on the other hand, would beg him to be a little more circumspect in his comments about the nonprofit world as we prepared for the start of another program for nonprofit executives.

I will always remember how attendees experienced the first day of our management certificate program. After introductions, I would turn to Pablo to provide a brief history of the field, which no one knew better than he did.

He was always so eloquent. But what really captured the participants’ attention were his “Ten Points on the Crisis in Leadership in the Nonprofit Sector.” He would conclude by saying, “I know Kathy doesn’t want me to say that, but it’s true.”

Pablo challenged nonprofits and foundations to meet the high expectations society places on them as guardians of democracy. At Georgetown, he brought together academics, practitioners, and graduate students to debate critical issues facing nonprofits and democracy.

He worked tirelessly to raise money to cover the full tuition of one student in need every year and their stipend as a research and teaching assistant. But the gift that Pablo gave each of his students was an unwavering belief that they could be a leader and make a difference in the world.

In 2006, the center endowed a Pablo Eisenberg Public Interest Fellowship to develop the leadership of students committed to social justice in every aspect of their lives. Since then, 25 students have served as Eisenberg Fellows.

There have been many tributes to Pablo, but one that I always go back to is Princeton University’s announcement of Pablo Eisenberg as the 2004 honorary doctor of law degree recipient.

“After the towers of Princeton, the spires of Oxford and centre court at Wimbledon, Pablo Eisenberg could have settled into a life of privilege. Instead, he chose an unsettled, and unsettling, life, battling in the trenches for social justice and community change, and challenging the privileged and powerful to make sustainable investments in the underprivileged and the powerless.”

While there were times that I dreaded feedback from Pablo, I know how lucky I was to have him in my corner. It was impossible to be complacent with him around, and he always pushed me, and the center, to do our best. Pablo is leaving a big hole that our students and the field will struggle to fill.

Kathy Kretman
Waldemar A. Nielsen Chair of Philanthropy and Director, Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership
McCourt School of Public Policy, Georgetown University

A Commitment to Serving Those Who Did Not Get Their Fair Share

For those of us of a certain age in the field of philanthropy, all one had to say was “Pablo” and it was clear who was being discussed — and that a story was in the works.

Pablo Eisenberg was a giant in the antipoverty field and an unwavering critic of those in philanthropy who were not funding at the grassroots level.

I met Pablo when I was a young program officer at Carnegie Corporation of New York. He harangued me for most of the meeting, asking why Carnegie wasn’t funding more organizing. It was not the last time. He frequently described foundation presidents and program officers whom he felt were falling short as “gutless wonders.”

Pablo had a storied life. How many people in the nonprofit world have also played at Wimbledon? But his lifelong mission was to serve those who did not get their fair share. He did not pull punches, including toward those who were his biggest donors.

Over the years, we became very good friends, and I consider him a mentor. I had many hilarious meetings with him where he would go off on politics or philanthropy. Despite his polemics, he always had a twinkle in his eye and a great sense of humor.

He could take as good as he gave. Speakers at his 1998 retirement party from the Center for Community Change were asked to use a prop when they spoke. Speaking before me was the late Bill White, president of the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, one of Pablo’s biggest donors over several decades.

Bill brought a toy phone. He said he brought this prop because usually minutes after Mott had sent a grant letter for renewed funding to the center, Pablo would be on the phone for another grant. When Bill said he had just sent a grant, he would hear the phone being thrown across the room.

I brought a hammer, for all of us who had been hammered by him. There are hundreds of such stories now being told in Pablo’s memory. But no one can deny his passion and commitment to those he was serving or his never-ending zeal to make sure philanthropy was spending its funds on those who needed it the most.

After he left the center, Pablo continued to write for years for the Chronicle of Philanthropy, critiquing both philanthropy and the nonprofit field when they were not up to par. We stayed in touch, and I saw him just before the pandemic at the assisted living facility where he resided. He was as passionate and opinionated as ever.

We spoke by phone this year after his wife’s death. He was a little tempered, but not by much. Pablo was one of a kind, and he will be missed.

Geri Mannion
Managing Director, Strengthening Democracy Program
Carnegie Corporation of New York