Have you considered working in philanthropy?

Help philanthropy strengthen democracy, not plutocracy

Dear Friends,

When Enrique Mendizabal of On Think Tanks proposed an interview about what it’s like to work as a grantmaker at a private foundation, I was hoping that he’d ask some hard-hitting questions. Enrique is one of the most interesting and original thinkers about the role of knowledge in society, but confrontational he is not, and he mostly threw me softballs about how I started working in the field and how I make decisions about which organizations to fund:

When I started working at Open Society Foundations in 2010, I figured I’d work in philanthropy for two maybe three years, find the social cause that I was most passionate about (democracy? migration? digital rights? global health?), and dedicate the rest of my career to pursuing it.

Instead, 13 years later, I’m still working in philanthropy … at least for another eight months. Over the past 13 years, a lot has changed in the world of private foundations. Most writing about private foundations these days comes in the form of criticism — from Anand Giridharadas to Rutger Bregman to Emma Saunders-Hastings to Rob Reich to Erica Kohl-Arenas to Ted Lechterman to Megan Ming-Francis, the dominant narrative about philanthropy among academic scholars is that it does more harm than good. (And that narrative only deepened with the fall of Sam Bankman-Fried.)

Criticism, accountability, and reform of private foundations are necessary. We do not want to live in a plutocracy, where billionaires shape policy with their tax-free, philanthropic giving. However, none of the critics listed above have worked a day at a foundation and few have consulted the professionals who do the (rather banal) day-to-day work of grantmaking. I hope that future scholars of philanthropy will ask the hard questions of grantmakers directly, or even better, gain direct experience working inside a foundation.

🧰 A useful tool

I rely on three tools to get more information about non-profits:

1. ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer collects and simplifies tax reports that every nonprofit must submit. Other websites charge for access to this information, but Pro Publica makes it all available for free. I check how an organization’s spending, revenue, and compensation evolve over time. (Some organizations will misrepresent their finances to funders, but not to the IRS!) Here’s a sample profile page for my employer, the Hewlett Foundation.

2. Glass Door gives me a sense of how some employees feel about working at the organization. Here’s the sample profile page for the Hewlett Foundation (by far the best place I’ve worked).

3. Great Nonprofits allows users (often volunteers or individual donors) to leave reviews about nonprofits (for instance: Sierra Club). And GrantAdvisor allows fundraisers to leave reviews about funders (for instance: Hewlett Foundation).

👏 Kudos

Kudos to some incredible new colleagues:

• I am looking forward to working with and learning from Aimee Arrambide, who will lead our grantmaking on reproductive equity. Her testimony to the House Judiciary Committee hearing on access to abortions and the impact of overturning Roe v Wade made me tear up.

• I am thrilled to have Ali Noorani directing our program on US Democracy, and I highly recommend his funny and illuminating newsletter.

• And this week I am happy to welcome my new boss, Mallika Dutt, who has done incredible work in India using pop culture and social media to reduce violence against women.

Next week I will be in Kenya with my dear colleague Diakhoumba Gassama whose no-nonsense talk about the power dynamics of philanthropy has been a breath of fresh air.

I am very lucky to have such colleagues. And if these are the kind of people you would like to work with, we’ll be recruiting for my successor in the coming months. Hewlett Foundation is truly a special place. (This isn’t to say that we don’t have any problems, but unlike other places I have worked, we recognize them and try to do something about it.)

🎵 A Playlist

Seattle is famous for its great weather on Labor Day Weekend. “But what if it does rain?” Iris asked me as we planned our wedding ceremony outdoors. Trust me, I told her, it never rains on Labor Day Weekend.

Months later, just as our friend Luis pronounced us husband and wife, an unexpected afternoon rain cloud came right at us. Everyone pitched in: carrying the chairs and decorations inside in a hurry. This is the “transition” playlist we listened to between the ceremony and reception … a compilation of songs that we listened to while cooking dinner or cleaning the house early in our relationship in Mexico City.

🧐 What is Philanthropy For?

As Enrique observes, foundations are becoming more activisty — advancing their own policy preferences through direct advocacy instead of enabling citizens to influence policy outcomes through democratic processes. There is a name for using big money to determine policy: plutocracy. So how can philanthropy become more democratic and less plutocratic? Here’s an excerpt from an essay I wrote on just that topic, “What is Philanthropy For?”

In an ideal democracy, philanthropy would fund the research, pilot projects, and evaluations that are too risky and costly to be supported by taxpayers. Private foundations wouldn’t have to advocate for policies because policymakers would implement the solutions that represent the interests of their constituents and of society at large.

Unfortunately, we don’t live in an ideal democracy and the decisions of policymakers are influenced by lobbyists, corporate donors, friends, personal experiences, and cognitive biases. Tobacco companies, oil companies, Hollywood, the agricultural industry, the financial sector — they all pour billions of dollars into lobbying and campaign donations to pursue policies (like farm subsidies, financial deregulation, environmental deregulation, and copyright extension) that support their interests but are harmful to the rest of us.

If you have any questions about philanthropy in general, or the recruitment of my successor specifically, let me know.

And have a great week!

David