Your Secret Weapon in These Divisive Times

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: Days before the presidential inauguration, with tensions simmering over what to expect from the new administration, nonprofits should look to fundraisers to help organizations navigate the country’s divides.?

Unexpected as that advice might seem, that’s what Jason Lewis argues this week in The Commons. The veteran fundraiser-turned-consultant makes the case that the people who build your community of supporters have the skills to break through polarization. To be resilient in these divisive times, he writes, organizations need supporters across the red-blue spectrum. And it is fundraisers who can build the bridges for your organization to people of all political stripes. He writes:

“Difficult times are opportunities for fundraisers to shine.”?

Read Jason’s essay and his outline of the skills that fundraisers can bring to the task of closing divides.

A 'Powerful Journey' Toward Racial Healing

She leads one of the nation’s largest grant makers, and after decades spent in pursuit of racial healing, she has a success story to share.???

La June Montgomery Tabron — longtime CEO of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation — recently joined Chronicle of Philanthropy CEO Stacy Palmer to outline how nonprofit leaders can pursue racial healing within their organizations. She also discussed the benefits that Kellogg has reaped from its work.?

“This journey is a very powerful journey,” she said. “Our engagement scores amongst our staff are the highest that they've ever been in this foundation. Our work and our productivity has increased. Our dialogue is rich, and we're learning from one another.”

Watch the discussion on the Chronicle’s YouTube channel or on LinkedIn with free registration. Here's an interview transcript.

Of the Moment

News and other noteworthy items:

• In National Affairs, Hans Zeiger , president of the The Jack Miller Center , traces the history of training for civic leadership and warns it has been neglected at every level of education for decades. “If we wonder why Americans give such poor ratings to political leaders and the candidate selection pool,” Zeiger writes, “we need only look at our societal failure to teach political leadership as an explanation.”?
• In his Substack Connective Tissue, Sam Pressler — a writer and former executive director of the Armed Services Arts Partnership —?writes about “three of the most pernicious lies I think we tell ourselves about democracy, civic life, and community in America.” Lie No. 2, he says: “We can have civic renewal without economic renewal….So much of the discourse and the practice around civic renewal in the U.S. implies that we can regenerate communities without shifting our underlying economic structures. It’s as if new civic opportunities can just be sprinkled on top of existing infrastructure.”
• In the New York Times, Lee Drutman of the New America think tank and Jesse Wegman of the Times editorial board build a data-driven argument for proportional representation in Congress to break Washington’s legislative stalemate. Under their proposal, congressional districts would send multiple representatives to Washington based on each party’s share of the vote. “It allows several candidates to win seats without a majority of the votes,” they write. “When the winning threshold goes down, the number of viable parties goes up.” That would end today’s winner-take-all system, they say, and make room for parties that represent a broader spectrum of what Americans want.