Doing More by Doing Less: A Call to Rethink Philanthropy

The idea for Letting Go, a book Wrobel and Massey recently published on impact investing and participatory grantmaking, came out of a conversation they had at a conference in 2019, one of the last they attended before the pandemic turned the world virtual.

The conference was held in an immense former stock exchange in Europe; the main hall was filled with foundation leaders and venture capitalists who had paid upwards of $1,500 to mingle and learn about the latest trend in philanthropy, impact investing. The funders saw suffering in the world, and they nobly aimed to heal it. The big ideas discussed—greenhouse gas reduction, microfinance, sustainable infrastructure—were certainly important. Yet the people in the room were mostly white, mostly male, and almost entirely from the United States and wealthy European cities. Several times during the conference, speakers (including, to their credit, the conference organizers) pointed out the lack of voices in the room from marginalized communities.

This resulted in the concept of participatory grantmaking, which Wrobel and Massey write about.

READ MORE HERE