To the Trustees and Gatekeepers of American Philanthropy:
I have to start with a question that has been ruining me from the inside out every day I do not ask aloud: Is the philanthropic sector actually scared like the rest of us, or is it just a pusillanimous group of powerless powerfuls?
I use that word pusillanimous intentionally. It means lacking in courage and spirit; it describes a smallness of soul. For twenty years, I've navigated nonprofit leadership as a fundraiser and a philanthropy and race wonk. I am constantly problematizing systems that were designed to fail the very people they claim to serve. For two decades, I have seen some great moments, but they're overshadowed by the times I have watched this sector leverage its willfully obtuse ignorance to grow its economy by trillions. Collectively, American philanthropy has the resources to shift the axis of the nation, yet in this critical moment, the decision is to move like a group of powerless powerfuls more afraid of being on the bad side of a tyrannical regime than of the literal death of the human condition.
And it doesn't have to be this way. When we look back at history, we have centuries of examples of resistance. In fact, this August marks exactly 500 years since 1526, when the first act of Black resistance on this soil occurred at San Miguel de Gualdape (now known as South Carolina and Georgia), land colonized by European Spaniards. My ancestors were enslaved with Indigenous peoples and trafficked here 93 years before 1619. They looked at a violently inhumane tradition of extraction and decided their tricks would not work on them. They fought with a strategy rooted in community and a collective belief in freedom that didn't require or have time for a community of practice or new theory of change strategy session to be signed off on before they could respond to the demands of the moment.
Five centuries later, we continue to witness this unprovoked, hackneyed, and quite frankly played out brutal backlash. And the supposed neutrality and silence of the philanthropic sector is being weaponized, because when the lovers of humankind are quiet, it creates an environment for fascism and inhumane conditions to be weathered like they're part of nature. White supremacist systems are punishing humanity and the world to affirm a twisted megalomania. From the rise of tech-authoritarian oligarchies to the literal breaking of communities by walls of hate, the world is crying out for the "Philo" (a love for humankind) that philanthropy claims to be rooted in, to do something, and instead it's reviewing grant applications. Be so for real…
History will not be kind to this silence. And we who believe in freedom will not let it be forgotten that while people died, while wars were manufactured, and while economies were broken to further enrich the few, the group that is said to be ensuring care was nothing more than a pusillanimous group of powerless powerfuls. You are playing both sides of the table. We see you. Your neutrality, moderate positioning, inaction, and straight-up silence… we see you. Even though we need you right now, you are too scared to fund resistance. You refuse to back the leaders who are ready to do what you are too scared to do: challenge the state, disrupt authoritarianism, and build independent, radical power.
But if you happen to want to explore frameworks to radically realign your financial and sociopolitical choices, I have provided a set of next steps for the philanthropic sector.
A Framework for Radical Realignment
If you actually believe the things you've written in your mission statements, you must depart from the wealth strategies that currently lead your decision-making.
- Betray Your Allegiance to the Narrative: "You must be willing to betray the stories you tell yourselves about your 'good doing' being enough." We need you to prepare and develop funding priorities to dismantle the power structures that destroy our communities.
- Finance the Work You Cannot Do: Stop being pusillanimous about your capital and financial choices. Be honest with yourselves and finance the community groups, movements, and people who have the courage you lack with deep intention. Put unrestricted, multi-year, reparative capital into the hands of the abolitionists, the land defenders, the mutual aid networks, and nonprofits and CBOs fighting for all of us.
- Realign Capital: Realign your financial choices to support resistance. This means shared accountability. It means moving your endowment, even some of it, out of Wall Street and into community-controlled trusts, CDFIs, credit unions, and cooperatives. This is a great way to fight with us, and at the very least, fight for the version of yourself you claimed to be in your 2020 DEI statements. Furthermore, it is time to decolonize philanthropy as a sector and dismantle oppressive practices that do not serve the people, communities, and issues we purport to care about so deeply.
Admit the Lie or Own Your Power
While I am being direct, this is not a bash of philanthropy; it is a call to the carpet. I am sick of playing around with the sector out of fear of never finding solvency or doing my job as a fundraiser. Either admit that your belief in the necessity of humanity is a lie you tell to shield your wealth, or act like you own the power you know you have. You cannot act powerless and hold this much power, money, and influence.
The 500-year history of Black resistance shows us that when we resist, these systems crumble. In 1526, a colonized vision for a new world burned to the ground at the hands of Africans trafficked and enslaved in America. They did more with less; we have no excuse. If philanthropy continues to be this type of pusillanimous bystander—"waiting-and-seeing" while we are all under siege—then you have already made your choice. You are on the side of the destroyer, and at least we all know where the sector stands.
I want to lift up some strong actors in the sector who are exemplars like The Trust-Based Philanthropy Project, The Chorus Foundation, The Whitman Institute, Solidaire Network, Decolonizing Wealth Project, Freedom Together, Borealis, North Star Fund, Bread & Roses Community Fund, Third Wave Fund, and surely others. However, individual contributions are not enough, and we need philanthropic coalitions to make the next big move for the sake of our country, and while it may sound dramatic, for the sake of humanity. It's just that serious.
The time for gray areas is over. Depart from the business-as-usual, tired philanthropic shell game. Return to the root of it all — love of humankind.
In Truth and Radical Demand,
Dennis Maurice Dumpson
