Giving Compass' Take:

• Kerry A. Dolan reports on conversations held at the Skoll World Forum about philanthropy's current moment of reckoning centered around diversity, inclusion, and doing better going forward. 

• How can funders help to advance this conversation? What other voices could be brought in to the conversation to make it more powerful and complete? 

• Read about steps towards democratizing philanthropy.

At a panel discussion entitled “Is Philanthropy Part Of The Solution Or The Problem?” the moderator began by asking the roughly 250 people in the audience if they agreed with this statement: “Philanthropy is at a moment of reckoning.” Nearly everyone raised their hand.

The issues are many, it turns out, starting with the power dynamic: Typically older white men control most of the fortunes and purse strings when it comes to philanthropy; they hire experts who are often well-educated to devise solutions to problems like poverty, lack of health care and lack of education—all without getting input from the people who are meant to benefit from the services being funded. Or as panelist Edgar Villanueva, author of the book Decolonizing Wealth, put it: “Philanthropy is top-down, closed-door and expert-driven.” Villaneuva works as a vice president at the Schott Foundation for Public Education, so he knows the sector well. His advice: “We need to show up and listen to understand what a community wants.“

One big challenge for philanthropists is what they can do to reverse the stark wealth inequality. Panelist Rodney Foxworth, executive director of BALLE, a group that promotes supporting local communities, warned that the trajectory for savings for African American families is headed toward $0. In Boston right now, Foxworth said, the median household wealth for an African American family is $8, compared to $247,000 for a Caucasian family. “This is a conversation we have to have. ... What will the U.S. look like when the majority of its citizens no longer have the wealth to sustain themselves? It’s a question about our collective futures.”

Another problem aired was the power of a few among nonprofits, a condition perhaps exacerbated by awards handed out to a small number of organizations by groups like the Skoll Foundation. These awards serve as a shorthand to validate the best of the bunch, while plenty of others may be doing equally good work.

Read the full article about the moment of reckoning by Kerry A. Dolan at Forbes.