Shifting philanthropic engagement: moving from funding to deliberation in the eras of the COVID -19 global pandemic and black lives matter

Abstract

WHAT IS THIS MONOGRAPH?Philanthropy and Digital Civil Society: Blueprint 2021 is the twelfth annual industry forecast about the ways we use private resources for public benefit in the digital age. Each year, I use the Blueprint to provide an overview of the current landscape, point to big ideas that will matter in the coming year, and direct your attention to sources of future promise.Sadly, because of the restrictions in place to prevent the spread of Covid-19, I have not been able to travel outside of the U.S. since 2019, so this year's Blueprint is more U.S.-focused than I prefer. However, while working from my home and spending time mobilizing, protesting, and mourning in community with neighbors, I still learned enormously and gratefully from the African American Policy Forum; the Rights x Tech community; the Guild of Future Architects; Justice Funders; Megan Ming Francis; digital sociologists Jessie Daniels, Karen Gregory, and Tressie McMillan Cottom; NYU's Institute for Public Knowledge; Civic Signals; colleagues across California working to "digitally upgrade" nonprofit capacity building; people working on community-led digital infrastructure; data justice leaders; the Radical AI and Computer Science and Civil Society communities; civic scientists and those who study them; and a global network of scholars, activists, lawyers, policymakers, and technologists working to enable assembly in the digital age. That's where I've been. WHY IS IT CALLED A BLUEPRINT?I use the metaphor of a blueprint to describe the forecast because blueprints are guides for things yet to come and storage devices for decisions already made. My father is an architect. I grew up surrounded by scale models of buildings, playing in unfinished foundations, trying to not get hurt by exposed rebar. I eavesdropped on discussions with contractors, planning agencies, homeowners, and draftsmen 1 -all of whom bring different skills and interpretations to creating, reading, and using blueprints. Creating a useful blueprint requires drawing ideas from many people, using a common grammar so that work can get done, and expecting multiple interpretations of any final product. I intend my Blueprints to speak to everyone involved in using private resources for public benefit and help people see their individual and institutional roles within the dynamics of the larger collective project of creating civil society. I hope you will use it as a starting point for debate and as input for your own planning. Please join the discussion on Twitter at #blueprint21. WHO WROTE THIS DOCUMENT?I'm Lucy Bernholz and I'm a philanthropy wonk. I am Senior Research Scholar and Director of the Digital Civil Society Lab, which is part of Stanford University's Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society (PACS). The Huffington Post calls me a "philanthropy game changer," Fast Company magazine named my blog Philanthropy2173 "Best in Class," and I've twice been named to The Nonprofit Times' annual list of 50 most influential people. I studied history and earned a BA from Yale Univ...

What is the relationship between philanthropy, materiality and public space?

“…The adaptation of Lessig (2001) Table 1 encourages a conversation between development professionals and philanthropists that echoes calls for more deliberation in philanthropic relationships (Kraeger, 2022). It can be used by development professionals to organise their discussions with donors about the substantive implications of material gifts, such as buildings, for the whole spectrum of an organisation's needs, mission and goals (Kaji-O'Grady, 2021).…”

“…Second, the appropriation of public space can be mediated by foundations if/as they seek to redress the dynamics of power relationships inherent in philanthropy. Kraeger (2022, p.299) calls for an emphasis on deliberation which will expand the range and depth of knowledge and experiences that foundations hear from communities. She suggests that philanthropy: ‘move beyond the relational to being embedded and engaged with humility and intentionality’ (Kraeger, 2022, p.299; Orensten & Buteau, 2020, pp.9–10).…”

“…Kraeger (2022, p.299) calls for an emphasis on deliberation which will expand the range and depth of knowledge and experiences that foundations hear from communities. She suggests that philanthropy: ‘move beyond the relational to being embedded and engaged with humility and intentionality’ (Kraeger, 2022, p.299; Orensten & Buteau, 2020, pp.9–10). The mediating role of philanthropy in the appropriation of public space considers how the public spaces available to citizens are accessible, as well as whether they can be used to facilitate the exercise of their agency and interests.…”

Community engagement and power dynamics in conservation philanthropy grant making

“…This literature risks reinforcing the inequitable relations it hopes to deconstruct by “insisting that any act of subversion merely plays into, and thus enhances, the authority of dominant paradigms” (Ruti, 2006, p. 4). An alternative conceptualization of power recognizes the potential for philanthropic foundations to exercise power with society through creative forms of foundation–community relations that facilitate cooperation and learning (Dunning, 2023; Gilson & Garrick 2021; Herro & Obeng‐Odoom, 2019; Kraeger, 2022; Partzsch, 2017; Partzsch & Fuchs, 2012).…”