How nonprofits' and philanthropy's fear and disdain of money is biting us in the ass
Quick reminder: I'm having a virtual book launch event on February 25th at 10am Pacific Time. It's free, open to everyone, and auto-captions will be enabled. Details and registration here.
--
Last week, I made a reel called “Funders: Stop overthinking how you can help nonprofits right now,” where the message is simple: Nonprofits and people in general just need money. Unrestricted money. Over a long period of time. You want nonprofits to be effective in protecting vulnerable people? MONEY! Want leaders not to burn out while fighting this fascist regime? Want to solve poverty? Give money. Want to help immigrants detained by ICE? Money. MONEY! LOTS OF MONEY!
The reel got nearly 3,000 likes and tons of supportive comments. People are tired of so many funders wanting to be “helpful” but doing anything except increasing the amount of money they’re giving out. Nonprofits do not need more webinars, research papers, listening sessions, statements of support, or whatever non-funding-based solutions funders love to propose. A colleague wrote:
“A foundation in my city just yesterday announced new capacity building programs. I got so excited. And then I read the email. They’re bringing in big-name consulting/technology companies to ‘teach’ all these systems and paying them money but no cash for the participating organizations to implement anything they ‘learn’ (and the products/services that will be pitched to them).”
A few colleagues though, were taken aback at the idea that money is the solution to a lot of problems right now. One seemed almost offended, writing, “This guy thinks corporate solution for anti-corporate world. The mission needs more than money […] MLK didn’t have nonprofit corporate money.”
So let’s talk about this, OK, because it’s vital we’re all on the same page as we continue dealing with entrenched societal problems. First of all, calling me "this guy" is very hurtful. I prefer "this sexy middle-aged man."
Second, I’ve been railing against capitalism for years. And I’ve been railing against our sector’s role in conscience-laundering for capitalism; through our actions, even well-meaning, we are often complicit in an awful system that allows a few people to exploit others to enrich themselves and hoard their riches, who then use their wealth to perpetuate this shitty system. In an ideal world, we would not have wealth disparity or inequity or injustice, and in fact, most nonprofits would not even have a reason to exist. We should work toward that world.
Because we see how awful capitalism is, it’s understandable that people would recoil at the thought of using money, the symbol and vehicle for capitalism, to solve many of the problems directly caused by capitalism. We often bring up Audre Lorde’s quote “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.”
But here’s the thing, while we’re debating the merits and morality of money, the right-wing has been using it without qualm, and extremely effectively. To the right, money is just a tool to accomplish their goals. They don't wring their hands over it. They invest in institutions, control the media, shape societal narratives, support their cultural warriors, buy politicians, and subvert the judiciary to be right-wing. They pump tons of money into these strategies.
Liberals, in contrast, in part due to their fraught and ambivalent relationship with money, refuse to fund anywhere to the same degree needed to provide effective counters. Some progressives, meanwhile, think that using money to solve problems caused by capitalism is somehow misaligned with progressive values.
All of this leads to us falling far behind the right. A glaring example to illustrate this rift is how one donor gave 1.6 billion dollars, the largest political gift in history, to continue turning the courts, including the Supreme Court, completely right-wing. In contrast there is not a single billionaire who claims to care about an equitable world donating anywhere near that amount to turn the courts progressive.
Now you might be thinking, “But that’s billionaires; none of them, even the ‘nice’ ones, actually want the status quo to change, so why would they invest money into changing it?” Fair point. But their motivation is a separate matter. It doesn’t negate the fact that if liberal donors were motivated to change things, they could do so significantly by deploying MONEY.
Counter the Supreme Court’s turn toward fascism? Money. Get more progressive politicians elected? Money. Undo Citizens United? Money. Stop gerrymandering? Money. Get money out of politics? Money. It takes money for people to organize. It takes money for advocacy and lobbying work. As much as it sucks, everything requires money, and if one side understands that and the other side doesn’t, guess which side wins?
Turning Point USA, which has the mission of turning young people right-wing, in 2024, according to its 990 (since it is a nonprofit), received over 84 million dollars in contributions and grants. With so much money, they’re able to get over a thousand chapters into high schools and nearly a thousand into colleges across the country, with plans for much, much more. Where is the left’s 84-million-in-budget-a-year counterpoint to TPUSA? Don’t tell me that if donors and funders decided to give 100M a year for twenty years to fight against the right-wing radicalization of young people, that it wouldn’t make a difference because “money is the master’s tool.”
Anyway, the point is, we all, even the most radically progressives among us, need to get over the delusion that many of the inequities in our world can be addressed without money. Saying that MLK didn’t have corporate money is ridiculous and inaccurate. MLK, Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, and other great leaders received grants and donations to do their work.
Dr. King spoke out strongly against capitalism, saying "Capitalism does not permit an even flow of economic resources. With this system, a small privileged few are rich beyond conscience, and almost all others are doomed to be poor at some level. That's the way the system works. And since we know that the system will not change the rules, we are going to have to change the system."
And yet, he still had to engage with capitalism, accepting money, to fuel his movement. He probably felt the dissonance with that more than anyone. I imagine to him money is like power. In an ideal world, there wouldn’t be such glaring power differentials among people, but since we’re not in an ideal world, those who believe in justice still need to wield power to lessen the influence of power. He said:
“Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.”
To parallel that with the role of money in our work, in an ideal world, money would not be so pivotal to everything. But we’re not in an ideal world, so we need to wield money effectively. Money without a justice-and-liberation-focused moral compass (for instance, the way it’s been deployed by the right or by neoliberals) is abusive and perpetuates inequity. But a strong justice-and-liberation-focused compass and strong anti-capitalism stance, without money to actualize, is delusional and ineffectual.
All of this is to say, we’re going to need money to get work done. Of course, money by itself will not solve all our problems, but it is a very necessary ingredient.
So funders need to get over whatever their reasons are for supporting anything except giving out more money—and just give out more money. Please stop it with the white papers and summits and hiring consultants to do research and teach people about capacity building or resilience or whatever. GIVE MONEY! LOTS OF MONEY! UNRESTRICTED MONEY. OVER SEVERAL YEARS!
And nonprofit leaders, community organizers, and anyone who is working toward a world free of capitalism, wealth disparity, poverty, and so on, need to get over whatever disdain and fear of money they may have and start using it like a tool to achieve a just and equitable world, and world where money is not so powerful.
-
Vu’s new book is out. "Reimagining Nonprofits and Philanthropy: Unlocking the Full Potential of a Vital and Complex Sector." Order your copy at Elliott Bay Book Company, Barnes and Nobles, or Bookshop. If you’re in the UK, use this version of Bookshop. If you plan to order several copies, use Porchlight for significant bulk discounts. Also, if you're buying 25 copies or more, I'll be glad to call in for a 50-minute discussion; please contact NWBspeaking@gmail.com.
