Asking for a Friend... How Can Philanthropy Prep for the Next Election?
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Conundrum
My foundation is currently worst-case scenario planning for the November presidential election. How should philanthropy be preparing for the next presidential election regardless of the outcome?
- Preparing for the Circus
Advice
Dear Preparing for The Circus,
The looming election seems to be top of mind for many people, and certainly top of the news cycle. To some the election is signaling hope, but for others despair or apathy. I too, feel the knot in my stomach when thinking about the election, but not because I am worried about the results. For me, it’s because outcomes aside, I see the U.S. facing a rapid descent into fascism.
When I was in high school, a classmate asked my government teacher, “Who is your favorite president?” The teacher replied, “Asking that question is like asking what your favorite type of poverty is.” The class laughed and we moved on to something else. At the time I chalked up his response to classic New England snark as he acknowledged inequality at the very foundation of America’s status quo. But now I realize the deeper meaning behind it.
This type of deep cynicism may not be what hopeful liberals want to hear as November looms nearer and there is fear of a repeat 2016, 2020, or January 6th. The reality is that persistent social problems plaguing the U.S. are the result of systemic problems that will be not be changed by presidents, but instead by investing in people power. Whatever your scariest version of Trump’s America or Project 2025 is, pieces of it are already happening.
- The 638 anti-transgender bills across 43 states.
- The collaboration between ICE and local law enforcement through 287g (a program Biden ran on ending in 2020) or Operation Lonestar at the southern border.
- The dissolution of abortion rights following the overturning of Roe.
- Despite the promises following Black Lives Matter uprisings of 2020 and movements to defund the police, multi-billion dollar police training facilities are cropping up across the U.S., including a $44 million training facility in San Pablo, CA.
- While congress fails to pass legislation around universal healthcare or guaranteed education citing costs, billions of dollars are greenlighted to provide funding and military weapons to Israel to carry out genocide against Palestinians and instigate a larger regional war in Lebanon.
- Lack of investment in climate disaster infrastructure for those in the South.
"With this scale of fascist oppression, it makes sense to hope that existing electoral structures can be vehicles for change. But that hope starts and belongs to movement groups, who already have the best strategies against these threats."
With this scale of fascist oppression, it makes sense to hope that existing electoral structures can be vehicles for change. But that hope starts and belongs to movement groups, who already have the best strategies against these threats.
Movements can respond to any threat, mobilizing not only around electoral politics, but also hyperlocal and systemic issues. They are the hubs of deep analysis with decades of experience compared to those newly activated by a figurehead like Trump. Movements push politicians, push society writ large, and gain hard fought wins often on a shoestring budget. Who, where, and what philanthropy funds is often woefully behind. We don’t want a repeat of philanthropy’s failures of the Civil Rights Movement, when philanthropy largely invested in campaigns more palatable to the white establishment like voting rights and education, but failed to fund grassroots movements like the Montgomery Bus Boycotts, which was instead bankrolled and materially supported by already economically marginalized local grassroots organizers.
The president can only do so much. That’s not to say that it is an unimportant position or that the candidates are basically the same so we should throw our hands up and do nothing. In fact, it is because structures that enable the rise of fascism are so deeply entrenched in society, that philanthropy needs to fund movements at an unprecedented scale. Grassroots organizers have been pleading with philanthropy, "fund us like you want us to win.”
It’s time for philanthropy to boldly move money like never before. To spend more than 5% of the endowment; to invest in a future of Black liberation, indigenous sovereignty, and disability justice. My hope for the sector as we prepare for November is to fund movement like you believe in the vision. Fund movement like you see a liberated future. Fund movement like you can dream beyond the polls. Fund protest and key pathways toward safeguarding civil liberties. If you’re going to vote blue no matter who, make sure you fund movement, too.
In solidarity,
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