Samwise Nonprofits and Charities Newsletter
Saturday, July 4, 2026
Saturday Deep Dive
Today we step back from the daily news cycle and surface the best recent research and long-form analysis on nonprofit impact, philanthropy, and sector policy. Worth a slower read.
Philanthropy Must Treat Reparations as a Necessity, Not an Option, for Racial Equity
A new article published in Nonprofit Quarterly on July 3, written in collaboration with Liberation Ventures, calls on philanthropists, foundations, and other funders to treat reparations for Black people as a necessity for achieving racial equity and a thriving multiracial democracy. The authors—Aria Florant, Tonyel Edwards, Cora Daniels, Alexandra Williams, Maurice Asare, and Vikas Maturi—argue that many in philanthropy say they want to advance racial equity, but that this goal cannot be reached without also building a culture of repair. The article frames reparations not as a divisive policy debate but as a structural requirement for the kind of democracy that philanthropy says it wants to support. The piece is part of NPQ’s America 250 series examining the sector’s relationship to racial justice at a pivotal national moment.
Sources: Nonprofit Quarterly Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Protect Democracy Makes the Case for Proportional Representation as Civil Society’s Structural Fix
Two advocates from Protect Democracy argued in Nonprofit Quarterly on July 2 that civil society cannot defend itself from authoritarianism by playing defense alone. Cyrena Kokolis and Farbod Faraji, writing in NPQ’s “In Defense of Civil Society” column, contend that the US electoral system structurally advantages authoritarianism and that proportional representation (ProRep) is the upstream structural reform civil society must pursue. Under ProRep, multi-winner districts replace single-winner ones, making gerrymandering functionally impossible and ensuring nearly all voters receive representation. The authors cite evidence that proportional systems reduce affective polarization and political violence, and foster multiparty coalitions that can isolate anti-democratic factions. Critically, enacting ProRep would require an act of Congress, not a constitutional amendment. The authors call on nonprofits, civil society leaders, and donors to begin building cross-ideological coalitions and funding the advocacy now.
Sources: Nonprofit Quarterly Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Philanthropy’s Capture of Youth Movements Is Costing Democracy Its Strongest Engine
Dr. Nia West-Bey, executive director of the National Collaborative for Transformative Youth Policy, published a deep analysis in Nonprofit Quarterly on July 3 arguing that three structural failures—movement capture by philanthropy, lack of coordinated strategy, and absence of national infrastructure—are preventing modern youth-led movements from translating local wins into national change. Drawing on three historical youth movements—Ella Baker’s Young Negro Cooperative League (which peaked at 400 members in 22 communities), the youth marchers of Bloody Sunday and the Voting Rights Act campaign, and the South Africa divestment movement that helped bring down apartheid—West-Bey argues that today’s young people have never experienced a national win. She cites researcher Megan Ming Francis’s concept of “movement capture” and the documented pattern of philanthropic dollars professionalizing and taming movements. The article calls on nonprofits and philanthropy to audit their role in coopting youth-led agendas.
Sources: Nonprofit Quarterly Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
On America’s 250th, a Political Scientist Argues the Nation Is Being Called to Refound Itself
Kelly Burton, CEO of Black Innovation Alliance and author of the forthcoming book “The Price of Union: Race, Power, and the Making of American Democracy,” published an essay in Nonprofit Quarterly on July 2 using Gouverneur Morris and the drafting of the Constitution’s Preamble as a lens on America’s 250th anniversary. Morris, a Pennsylvania delegate who fiercely opposed slavery at the Constitutional Convention and lost, is widely credited with writing the phrase “to form a more perfect Union”—which Burton reads not as a description of what was built, but as a permanent orientation toward what remains unfinished. Burton argues that the nation’s inherited democratic order was built on unresolvable contradictions between equality and exclusion, and that this moment—like the founding era itself—calls not for managing the existing system but for refounding it. Civil society, she writes, is being summoned to that work.
Sources: Nonprofit Quarterly Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Parkland Co-Founder Traces Gun Violence from Founding-Era Slave Patrols to Today’s Mass Shootings
Jaclyn Corin, executive director of March For Our Lives and a survivor of the 2018 Parkland shooting, published a commentary in Nonprofit Quarterly on July 2 arguing that America’s 250th anniversary demands an honest reckoning with how gun violence has been normalized from the founding era to the present. Corin traces how guns were used to enforce enslavement through armed slave patrols, to drive indigenous displacement through the Trail of Tears, and to suppress Reconstruction through massacres at Colfax and Rosewood. She notes that more than 40,000 Americans are killed by guns every year and that children and teenagers are now more likely to die from gunfire than from any other cause. Since the original March For Our Lives protest in March 2018, the movement has helped pass hundreds of state and local gun safety laws. Corin calls for universal background checks and removing weapons of war from civilian streets.
Sources: Nonprofit Quarterly Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Youth250 Co-Founder Says Youth Disengagement Is a Structural Problem, Not a Motivation Problem
Dillon St. Bernard, co-founder of Youth250 and founder of Team DSB, published a commentary in Nonprofit Quarterly on July 2 arguing that the persistent narrative about youth disengagement misdiagnoses a structural problem as a cultural one. St. Bernard, who works at the intersection of youth civic engagement and the creator economy, argues that Gen Z grew up watching local newsrooms disappear and already has the conversations democracy depends on—about housing, healthcare, immigration, and belonging—whether institutions show up or not. Youth250, led by Made By Us, is a national effort to increase youth representation and influence in how America’s 250th anniversary is understood. On June 27, National Youth Day, Takeover Days were held at institutions including America’s Black Holocaust Museum, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, the Kentucky Historical Society, and the Lincoln Presidential Foundation. St. Bernard calls on funders to give young people real decision-making authority, not just visibility.
Sources: Nonprofit Quarterly Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
A Deep History of the Wealthy Progressive Donors Who Built American Civil Society’s Funding Machine
David Callahan, founder and editor of Inside Philanthropy, published a long-form historical analysis in Nonprofit Quarterly on July 1 tracing how wealthy progressive heirs built the infrastructure of American civil society funding from the 1960s through today. The article covers Stewart Rawlings Mott, son of a General Motors shareholder, who in 1972 ranked among the country’s largest political donors; George Pillsbury, who co-founded the Haymarket People’s Fund in 1974; and the Funding Exchange, launched in 1979, which encompassed 15 foundations and channeled $15 million annually to progressive groups before closing in 2018. The Tides Foundation, founded in 1976 by Drummond Pike, made $442 million in grants in 2024. Callahan also profiles newer entrants including the Freedom Together Foundation, the Foundation for a Just Society, and the Kataly Foundation, alongside intermediaries like Solidaire Network and Borealis Philanthropy.
Sources: Nonprofit Quarterly Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
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Curated by JD · samwise.agency
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