Andrew Simon, the Chronicle’s editor-in-chief, offers a sneak peek at what’s in each new issue. Available exclusively to subscribers, this newsletter gives you perspective on the most important trends and developments we’re following — as well as background on how we report and analyze key issues in the nonprofit world. Delivered once a month. (Subscribers only.)
Subject: Ukraine’s Humanitarian Crisis; Climate Change and Philanthropy
Dear Subscriber,
As deadly hurricanes and wildfires upended lives and thousands of Afghan refugees are resettling in California, Texas, and elsewhere, Americans have been reaching out to help people in need. In many cases, donors are not channeling their generosity to charities. Instead, they are using Venmo, GoFundMe, or other approaches to
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ALAMY
Dear Subscriber,
As we were working on our March cover story about the fierce battle over how philanthropy can best fight climate change, posted online today, our attention was also keenly focused on another global crisis as the war in Ukraine escalated.
To keep up with the breaking news for our website, my colleague Drew Lindsay surveyed charities that are responding to the humanitarian crisis and found record-smashing results at nonprofits large and small.
“It’s not like anything I’ve ever seen,” Gideon Herscher, a senior fundraiser at the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, told Drew. “This crisis has brought down all the walls.”
Meanwhile, we asked Alexandra Toma, head of the Peace and Security Funders Group, about what big philanthropy needs to do. In her essay, she reminds grant makers of the importance of heading off misinformation campaigns about Ukraine and the conflict while also boosting long-term investments in more equitable and diverse approaches to national security and foreign policy.
That same exhortation applies to climate change, where only a sliver of philanthropic dollars go. Grants are suddenly starting to grow, though, in part because of the efforts of ClimateWorks, a nonprofit founded by some of the nation’s biggest grant makers. Jim Rendon examines how the organization has morphed in response to concerns that its technocratic approach has failed while grassroots efforts are getting stronger results — but still not many philanthropic gifts.
The stakes are so high on climate change that nobody wants to get it wrong, but a growing number of philanthropists are joining with activists to urge more attention to community-based solutions and efforts to stop fossil-fuel extraction. They point out that large societal shifts — such as those that gave people of color and women more rights and made gay marriage legal — came about from grassroots activism.
As Lee Wasserman, head of the Rockefeller Family Fund, told Jim: “Big, transformational change almost never happens in this country without fights.”
Our March issue has many other articles on essential topics. Among them:
Alex Garcia for The Chronicle
Alex Daniels examines how new nonprofit leaders of color (such as Forefront CEO Monique Jones, above) are navigating the opportunities and challenges of being the first to head organizations long led by white people. As the influx of new leaders accelerates, some experts told Alex that grant makers — and the exiting white leaders — need to do more to ensure that the new CEOs aren’t faced with a barrage of problems. Some foundations are already acting: For instance, the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation now adds an extra year of funding whenever organizations are undergoing a leadership transition.
Drew Lindsay looks at the new money flowing to antiviolence groups that once struggled to keep the lights on. A growing cadre of groups are deploying trusted figures such as faith leaders, coaches, teachers, and former gang members to defuse volatile situations, mentor those most at risk of violence, and help them find internships, job training and other support. Behind the new investments: a push from President Biden and interest in public-safety measures that don’t center on adding more police.
Andrew Hayashi and Justin Hopkins, scholars at the University of Virginia, argue in our opinion section that Congress could shift the balance of philanthropic power away from the wealthy by passing a charitable tax credit. What’s more, they say a national survey they conducted in January shows that such a credit would also probably prompt more people to volunteer for causes they care about.
And in other essays, Hilary Pennington of the Ford Foundation and Mark Freeman of the Institute for Integrated Transitions say philanthropy must disrupt polarization before it does irreparable harm. And Leslie Lenkowsky, a Chronicle columnist, writes about the actions nonprofits and foundations need to take to deal with inflation.
We’re doing a lot more to offer you insights this month, including through our live online events.
On Thursday, join Eden Stiffman and veteran fundraisers to learn how to hang onto donors who gave for the first time in response to the threats to health and the economy caused by Covid and to causes in the spotlight because of the racial reckoning. And on March 24, join Lisa Schohl to build your skills in developing a steady and reliable source of earned revenue.
Plus, you can join us for a briefing on March 16 with Alison Fine and Beth Kanter, authors the Smart Nonprofit: Staying Human-Centered in an Automated World, a book that publishes tomorrow.
We hope to keep providing you plenty of information and inspiration to nurture you in these troubled times. And it is in these challenging days around the globe that we appreciate your work as a change maker. Thank you for all you do to make a difference.
Stacy Palmer is chief executive of the Chronicle of Philanthropy, and has overseen the organization’s transition as it became an independent nonprofit in April 2023.
