Research That Matters (January 17 - 20, 2008)

Purpose: Social change philanthropy aims to address the root causes of social, economic and environmental injustices through the funding of progressive community-based organizations (Changemakers, 2005; NCRP, 2003). Earlier waves of social change philanthropy failed to go beyond check writing and did not directly take on issues of power, control, and decision making throughout the field of philanthropy, as well as wealth redistribution (Jenkins, 1989, 1998; Ostrander, 1995; Ostrower, 1995; Skocpol, 2003). A movement of young people with wealth and access to elite institutions has created a dynamic “new wave” of social change philanthropy. They seek to gain a more complex understanding of their class and (often) race privilege and power, and how they can become more effective allies to social justice movements. In this work, they venture beyond seeing themselves as just “donors” and include organizing within elite institutions and communities to shift their practices, while remaining accountable to cross-class movements. This study presents a pedagogical and organizing framework used to organize young people with wealth to develop their critical consciousness around issues of power and privilege in order for them to leverage their access to wealth and elite institutions to contribute to social justice while remaining accountable to cross-class movements.

Method: A mixed methodological ethnographic case study (Stake, 1995; Yin, 2003) of Resource Generation, a leading organization in this movement, was conducted. Phase one included participant observation of conferences and major programs where Resource Generation played a key developmental role. Phase two consisted of interviews with current and former staff, as well as other community and constituent leaders at Resource Generation. Throughout both phases, documents were analyzed. Utilizing qualitative software Atlas.ti, data were interpreted using open coding from grounded theory procedures (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Lofland & Lofland, 1995). Further, interview transcripts and thematic analyses were member-checked by organizational participants.

Results: The overall themes that have emerged include a strong sense of and relationship to the core values of accountability, inclusivity, and transparency. Run by a cross-class staff and board, organizational members have grounded their work within a history of social justice philanthropy, while drawing significantly on grassroots community organizing and anti-oppression pedagogical and organizing models. More specifically, they have a donor education, organizing and leadership building model that contains five primary aspects of their work: community building; dialogue, connections, donor organizing and giving. Often using humor and “fun,” they work to both support and challenge constituents to build critical consciousness around issues of power and privilege in their lives and related institutional structures that maintain systems of inequality and oppression, while supporting constituents to take action on a personal and institutional level.

Implications: This study contributes to pedagogical and organizing models that address how organizations, including schools of social work, can work with people to develop critical consciousness around issues of power and privilege, not only among those with wealth, but also other privileged identities, to support social justice movements within a participatory democratic framework (Collins, 2000a, 200b; Freire, 1995; Fung, 2004; Gutiérrez et al., 1999, 2000).