A Test of Your Values

Welcome to the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s weekly newsletter highlighting stories and conversations from The Commons, our project exploring how philanthropy and nonprofits are working to close divides, repair the social fabric, and strengthen communities.

From senior editor Drew Lindsay: For several years now, my colleagues and I have covered how nonprofits have been turned inside-out by America’s pitched battles over pandemic measures, racial-justice efforts, the war in Gaza, and more. Now senior editor Ben Gose reports from a fresh vantage point — that of nonprofit leaders who have stood at the helm of an organization lashed by polarization’s storms.

Each of the three leaders in Ben’s story steered their organization to safety, despite threats to their funding and sometimes to their well-being.

But what his reporting reveals is the difficult choice forced upon them — to uphold their own values and their organization’s mission, even as doing so threatened its finances and its very survival.

Lincoln Jones, director and choreographer of American Contemporary Ballet in Los Angeles, recalls trying to modulate his public comments to avoid controversy.

"Then I just like stopped for a second. I was like, 'What am I doing?'" Jones told Ben. "I'm supposed to be an artist. I'm supposed to take things that are felt deeply within me and get them out and take risks. And here I am not even willing to say what's on the top of my mind.”

Read more about the experience of Jones and the other leaders in Ben’s story.

The Activist Fighting Racism — and Winning

Crystal Echo Hawk is on a roll. The Native American activist was named a Skoll Award winner earlier this year. Then Melinda French Gates gave her a $20 million fund to distribute however she sees fit. Now, her group, IllumiNative Org , has spun up a film-production and financing company.?

Echo Hawk, a citizen of the Pawnee Nation, has spent most of her life advocating for Native Americans, just like generations of her family. But in recent years, she has taken a new tack, aiming to knock down cultural stereotypes about her people and introduce new, authentic narratives.?

“One of the biggest threats to Native peoples is invisibility,” she told me in an interview.?

Read our full conversation and find out how IllumiNative and other Native American groups have flipped the script in their relationship with funders.

Upcoming Events: The Commons in Conversation

A Plan to Stop Violence Before It Happens. Alarmed by the country’s slide into political violence? Mark your calendars to join us here on LinkedIn for a live chat with Nealin Parker of Common Ground USA @Search for Common Ground on October 16 at 12:30 p.m. She’ll be talking about philanthropy-backed efforts in advance of the 2024 elections to head off trouble before it starts.

??? The event is free. Registration is required to watch.

What to Say on November 6? Words like “community,” “diversity,” and “democracy” are commonplace in nonprofit vernacular. But how do average Americans react to them? Amy McIsaac has answers. She leads a project at Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE) that studies how civic language describing our values, ideals, and practices can motivate people or turn them off.?Join us on October 30 at 12:30 p.m. ET for a conversation with McIsaac about her analysis of words that bring us together and those that divide us.

??? The event is free. Registration is required to watch.

Of the Moment

News and other noteworthy items:

• Religion, while often seen as an accelerant to division, actually drives politics much less than we think, according to a new report from More in Common . One example: Americans generally believe that only about half of evangelicals and Muslims support religious pluralism while 78 percent of evangelicals and 75 percent of Muslims actually do.
• The Boston Review features a forum with leading advocates championing structural change in elections, including open primaries and ranked-choice voting. Essayists include several people featured in our Commons list of “people to watch,” among them Danielle Allen of Partners In Democracy and Lee Drutman of Fix Our House and New America .
• Writing in Forbes, Subramaniam (Subbu) Vincent , director of journalism and media ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics , argues that the media covering the election “largely center middle-class and upper-income voters and exclude voting-eligible people who may be struggling to make ends meet or experiencing poverty.” Yet in this razor-thin presidential race, Vincent says, they could be key swing voters.??