LAFF Society

NEWSLETTER

Social Justice Grantmaking in Today's World

By Michael Seltzer

 
(This article is adapted from a presentation Michael gave at the annual meeting of the Grants Managers Network. The full article was published this summer in the inaugural issue of its magazine, GMNsight, and is available on the organization’s web site,www.gmnetwork.org 
 
(Michael, who serves on the executive committee of the LAFF Society and chairs its program committee, is a distinguished lecturer at Baruch College’s School of Public Affairs in New York City. He writes frequently on philanthropic matters, including as a regular contributor to PhilanTopic, a blog of opinion and commentary from the Philanthropy News Digest, a publication of the Foundation Center. Also, he is a trustee of EMpower – The Emerging Markets Foundation.) 
 
Today, the term “social justice” has gained greater currency among foundations than ever before. Its ascendency could not be more timely as many early victories spearheaded by foundation grantees are now under serious challenges. 
 
Is this a fad or a trend “with legs”? What are its origins? And how can it be applied? 
 
Earlier use of the term in the philanthropic circles can be traced back to the early 1970s. In 1972, in an internal memo to John H. Knowles, the president of the Rockefeller Foundation, one of his officers suggested that the foundation use the phrase “Towards Social Justice in an Interdependent World” as a “unifying theme” to describe its work.
 
Also in the 1970s, select small-to-medium sized family foundations embraced the practice, language, and ethos of social justice, as evidenced by their early support of the U.S. civil rights movement. Subsequently, many public foundations joined their ranks. The word “justice” also appeared in the literature of religiously-affiliated grantmakers, such as Catholic Campaign for Human Development and the Jewish Fund for Justice.
 
This diverse set of donors began to meet annually under the aegis of the National Network of Change-Oriented Foundations. In 1981, the Network’s successor organization, the National Network of Grantmakers, asserted the following two purposes in its mandate:
 
“To be a voice for issues of social and economic justice within the philanthropic community and externally in sectors of the broad community including government, business, labor and education, and to expand the resource base (human and financial) for social and economic justice activities.”
 
In the following decades, other donors used many terms akin to social change or social justice in their annual reports. A sample lexicon of phrases would include: advocacy, equity, the poor speaking and acting for themselves, human rights, civil rights, empowerment, movement building, progressive change, social action, promotion of democracy, accountability and transparency, systemic change, and public policy.
 
Starting in the 1990s, large foundations began to use the term social justice. When the Ford Foundation reorganized its program divisions in 1996, it renamed one of them Peace and Social Justice. (That program division is now called Democracy, Rights and Justice.)
 
Social justice is not just a slogan on banner or bumper sticker or button. Its definition needs to be backed up with substance to be a useful grantmaker’s tool. In the late 1990s, the Foundation Center and Independent Sector sought to define social justice philanthropy. What the group came up with is worth quoting:
 
“Social justice philanthropy is the granting of philanthropic contributions to nonprofit organizations based in the United States and other countries that work for structural change in order to increase the opportunity of those who are the least well off politically, economically and socially.”
 
The report went on to describe the characteristics of a social justice framework, which makes lasting change more likely, including:
 
a focus on root causes of inequity rather than symptoms;
 
striving for lasting systemic and institutional change;
 
a combination of tactics such as policy advocacy, grassroots organizing, litigation and communications to yield enduring results, and
 
strengthening and empowering disadvantaged and vulnerable populations to advocate on their own behalf.
 
Subsequently, the Working Group on Philanthropy for Social Justice and Peace, under the aegis of the Ford Foundation, identified criteria it considers essential for good social justice philanthropy, upon which the following observations are based:
 
Because the mechanism of oppression sometimes appears faceless, foundation staff analyze the myriad ways in which institutional structures contribute to injustice. The category of institutions is broad and might include, for example, the local school system, the church, the military, local and national governments, NGOs, the business sector or individual businesses.
 
One of the goals of an effective social justice grantmaker is to shift power from those who perpetuate injustice to those who suffer it. To this end, foundation staff examine how power in its various forms (wealth, political influence, etc.) is acquired, held, and brokered.
 
Because people’s lives often hang in the balance, good intentions are not enough. The grantmaker’s work should have a significant chance of succeeding. It will thus be important to attend carefully to such matters as the scale of the intervention and its time horizon. Social justice is not easily achieved, nor does it come quickly.
 
An effective social justice grantmaker works in meaningful partnership with the communities they aim to serve. This means that the grantmaker will learn from communities and, whenever possible, take direction from them. The grantmaker will make the communities’ voices heard, not that of the foundation.
 
By working in solidarity with affected communities, the grantmaker gains a deeper understanding of the issues involved. By looking to these communities for leadership, the foundation staffer increases their ownership of the work.
 
Effective social justice grantmakers respect the dignity of the communities they serve. They do not cast them as complete victims, unable to change their basic condition without assistance. Nor do grantmakers romanticize these communities. Because all people possess free will, all parties must acknowledge that they have the ability to participate in their own oppression or liberation.
 
Respect drives out both under-valuation and unrealistic expectations. It motivates social justice grantmakers to seek wisdom and strength from the communities they serve.
 
Using a social justice lens in grantmaking could not be more important in today’s world. Nonprofit organizations working on issues ranging from asset-building in low-income urban and rural communities, human rights, immigration, educational opportunity and equity, to peace and sustainable development are in need of greater support than ever before. The time is now for social justice philanthropy to broaden its ranks and depth to aid these efforts in a political environment increasingly hostile to their efforts.

 

 

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