Grant makers pledged nearly a half-billion dollars to shore up Detroit’s pension system as part of the reorganization plan that helped the city emerge from bankruptcy, and foundations put up millions more to help the beleaguered city tackle issues like transportation, youth development, and entrepreneurship.
Foundation and nonprofit leaders reflected on their roles during the crisis and their current relationship with the city during a panel here at the ABFE annual conference. The organization was founded in 1971 as the Association of Black Foundation Executives. The discussion was frank.
“In some cases, I’m extraordinarily proud of the role that philanthropy played in holding the city together,” said Tonya Allen, chief executive of the Skillman Foundation. “If I were to critique us, there were some places we began to believe that we were government. And I think that in some cases, we began to believe that because we had an outsized influence, and we had good intent, that that was good enough.”
Foundations, she said, may have crowded out the public’s voice. Allen was very clear that she included herself in that assessment. “I’d be the first one to put my hand up on that.”
Skillman’s focus is improving the lives of young people. Allen said that her philosophy was that she would work with anyone who would help children.
“Here’s the challenge,” she told conference participants. “When I was working with people who did not enable the democratic voice, I was a part of disabling it.”
Allen said that if she had to do it over, she’s not sure if she would do anything differently.
“But it is important for us to acknowledge that philanthropy is not perfect, nor is it democratic,” she said. “It might be well intended, but it doesn’t mean that its intentions always align with its impact.”
‘Enormously Complicated’
When Detroit was in disarray, nonprofits stepped up, too.
“You talk about those dark days in a city that had absolutely no capacity,” said Orlando Bailey, chief development officer of the Eastside Community Network. “It was these community-based organizations being funded by philanthropy to do the work.”
His organization took on big projects like developing master plans for neighborhoods.
Fast forward a few years, he said, and those same community organizations are competing against Detroit for grants.
The current relationship between philanthropy and the city government is “enormously complicated,” Rip Rapson, chief executive of the Kresge Foundation, told conference participants. City officials want to raise money and dole it out themselves.
“We at Kresge have responded to the public sector’s call for aggregating dollars by saying we will hold it back and we will fund consistent with city priorities, but it will be through the channels of community,” he said. “And it drives them nuts, just nuts.”
Allen argued that philanthropy has an important role to play pressing government officials to make sure longtime residents benefit from and are a part of Detroit’s nascent revival.
“If we’re going to make a real turnaround in this city, then we ought to be united and saying to our mayor, ‘No more money until you start showing up on equity,’” Allen said. “That’s a thing that we have to be courageous about, and it is very difficult to do. But if we don’t do it, who is going to force this question?”
