More than a year of lockdown has taught many Americans about the importance of social distancing and the effects of vaccines. But perhaps the biggest lessons are about people we’ve held close and those whose company we miss, says Jenn Hoos Rothberg, executive director of the Einhorn Collaborative.
The need for human connection drives a new strategy that the philanthropy, founded by hedge-fund manager David Einhorn, introduced late last year. In collaboration with other foundations, it is creating a $100 million fund to support nonprofits that help people who are dug in on opposite sides of an issue see the humanity in their counterparts.
Foundations are taking what they’ve learned over the past year to nurture new ways of giving. Read more:
While it has been in the works for a few years, the refreshed plan seems tailor-made for a country that has been rent apart not only by the pandemic but by deep-seated political distrust. Hoos Rothberg says more Americans now recognize that the country is in a “crisis of connection.”
Sensing the moment is ripe, Einhorn is inviting foundations to take part in healing divides.
She says foundation peers have long considered Einhorn an “empathy philanthropy.” Rather than focus on improving personal outcomes, like helping more students advance to the next grade in school or improving patients’ health, the approach is dedicated to nurturing relationships between people — even people who seem predisposed to hate each other.
“People inherently need one another to thrive,” Hoos Rothberg says. “We are social beings. We are our best when we have positive, healthy relationships in our lives. Living in a multiethnic, multiracial democracy, it is absolutely essential that we have healthy relationships with people who are not like us, too.”
‘Feeling Work’
Einhorn historically made large grants to just a few institutions that work closely with the foundation to set up lasting relationship-building programs. For instance, a $50 million grant in 2014 to Cornell University helped establish Engaged Cornell, an effort that allows every undergraduate to work on public-service projects.
After the 2016 election, when divisions among Americans grew wider and it became more common to dehumanize political opponents, Einhorn responded by broadening its support. It made grants to 37 organizations working to bridge differences among people and strengthen their capacity for empathy.
Over the past few years, as Einhorn reconsidered its strategy, it decided to largely focus on building the capacity to connect with other people at critical stages of life: helping new mothers bond with their babies and helping members of Generation Z treat people from different backgrounds and viewpoints with respect, and even love.
The support for new mothers and their babies is critical, Hoos Rothberg says, because when people’s lives begin with healthy, nurturing relationships, they can grow up into trusting adults, capable of connecting with others. Another inflection point comes when people reach their teenage years and young adulthood, a time when people are often deeply reflective about their identity and their place in the world.
Grant making designed to help human connections has not been a pillar of most philanthropy, she says.
In both areas, the foundation has led efforts to create collaborative funds and programs to attract more investment. Einhorn is working with the J.B. and M.K. Pritzker Family Foundation and the Kellogg and Packard foundations to create Pediatrics Supporting Parents, which supports programs that promote the social and emotional health of infants and toddlers. And this month it announced the creation of New Pluralists, a grant-making collaborative that aims to pool $100 million over 10 years to support efforts to bring people together.
Other foundations involved in New Pluralists include the Fetzer Institute, the Hewlett Foundation, the Lubetzky Family Foundation, and the Charles Koch Institute. Although all the foundations were involved in creating the fund, they came together at Einhorn’s invitation shortly before the pandemic.
“We cannot act as a single actor if we’re actually going to have success here,” Hoos Rothberg says.
Critical Bonds
In response to the hardening of political views during the Trump presidency, many foundations have thrown support behind structural changes to the democratic process, including efforts to take politics out of how congressional districts are drawn, reduce the role money plays in elections, and eliminate winner-take-all forms of balloting.
New Pluralists would also like to change the national discourse, says Jonathan Lever, chief operating officer at the Fetzer Institute, but the approach is much different. The group wants to focus on shifting behavior, making cultural change, and helping people recognize the worth of others rather than changing voting laws or other mechanisms of democracy.
“You can do policy all you want, but policy can be reversed with every election cycle,” Lever says. “There has to be a deeper grounding that can anchor a revival of democracy.”
That deeper grounding can be discovered within ourselves, Hoos Rothberg says.
Much of philanthropy has embraced the idea that “systems change” is necessary to reverse years of racism and help people reach their potential. Hoos Rothberg has her sights set on a different system: the autonomic nervous system.
It’s the autonomic nervous system that triggers the “fight or flight” response during emergencies. By investing in the crucial bond between a parent and a baby and programs that allow students to lower their defenses and reflect, rather than act, on their fears about others, Einhorn hopes to encourage the serenity that comes when people feel good about social interactions.
“This is feeling work. This isn’t just what comes out of your mouth or what you think is happening in your head,” Hoos Rothberg says. “This is how your body feels when you feel calm and in relationship with others.”
