What Does it Look Like to Truly Shift Power in Philanthropy? Here Are 3 Real World Examples

Underlying all the crises we’re now facing — including climate change, lack of healthcare access and racial and economic inequities — there’s a harmful imbalance. Our current zero-sum socioeconomic model depends on some people being “winners” while others are left behind. Losses and failures only accrue further when the people who are least affected by crises have the biggest say in how to solve them.

Trust-based philanthropy starts to get at the need to shift control of money and power from those who have traditionally held it to those who haven’t. But the power-shifting solutions that get at the root of systemic problems are coming from distinct groups working in collaboration as equals.

As executive director of the Just Economy Institute, I’ve seen what can unfold when financial activists of different classes, races and generations work together. Their diverse perspectives and skills fuel a powerful engine that’s bringing to life radical solutions with profound effects.

JEI’s nine-month fellowship program brings together financial advisers, investors, philanthropists and community leaders to examine their views about money, promote effective collaboration with people from very different backgrounds, and learn to apply an integrated approach to funding change. Since 2017, we’ve graduated 129 fellows, and as the following examples show, they’re demonstrating the positive potential of cross-collaboration by transforming practices in philanthropy and impact investing. Read more