On shifting power in philanthropy

Our analysis of philanthropy captures the essence of our conversations with people who were part of the Review, including ourselves. It grounds the emerging themes that follow.

Systems of power and domination exert control over people and the world on multiple levels. They are designed to take away agency and our capacity to imagine worlds outside the limits of what already is. This is true especially within mainstream philanthropy.

Even when people are trying to reach for the radical, it’s within the magnetic field of power. Progress is counted in steps towards reform, not abolition, towards small wins, not radical transformation.

We are chasing our own tails trying to create better because we are at the mercy of these systems.

True liberation is possible, but we need resources. We live in a capitalist society, which means that we need funds to survive and build alternatives.

In an economy that is predicated on the accumulation of wealth in white institutions, we are given no choice but to try and convince people with access to wealth to share scraps of it. But this, like quicksand, keeps us stuck. We are weaponised against ourselves. We are run into the ground trying to use, in the late Audre Lord’s words, the ‘master’s tools.’

Transitioning away from the dregs of Empire requires stolen wealth to move more freely from being hoarded to where it is needed and belongs.

We need funders to move away from looking at the world from the vantage point of power, which oppresses us, disempowers us, marginalises us and holds us down.

Funders need to ask themselves: Who do they stand with? Who are they here for?

If JRCT wants to embody a fully intersectional approach that fully orients to justice, it must stand with us and for us.