To Support Democracy, Foundations Must Practice Democracy

These are challenging times for democracy. Our Executive Director Josh Lerner offers one path forward in his new article: To Support Democracy, Foundations Must Practice Democracy. As he writes in Nonprofit Quarterly, to address our democratic crisis, foundations need to shift their mindsets and serve as schools of democracy, not defenders of oligarchy.

The article describes how funders can transition from top-down decision-making to democratically managed pooled funds, decided by and for communities. We’re putting this approach into practice through the People Powered Fund. Each year, we ask for your ideas to grow and improve participatory democracy around the world. Our member organizations and boards then develop these ideas into proposals and vote to decide which projects we fund. 

Please read the article below, and share it (and your feedback) via Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. If you know funders who might be interested, please share the article with them.

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To Support Democracy, Foundations Must Practice Democracy

Democracy is under attack around the world, and many foundations are rallying to its defense. Yet at the same time, many foundations in their mode of operations are practicing and reinforcing the anti-democratic ideology of the attackers. By preaching democracy externally but practicing oligarchy internally, funders undermine their investments and our democracy.

To confront the crisis of democracy, directing external funding to democracy is not enough. Funders must also undo their internal anti-democratic practices. This means ending top-down decision-making by a small ruling elite. It also requires shifting power to communities. Fortunately, we already have models for how to do this…