At the heart of foundation organizational models, and even more so in community foundations, is the idea that aggregating the wealth of a few into the reliable and stable hands of a public charitable foundation will best serve the interests of the community. The aggregation creates a significant scale through which philanthropists can provide valuable influence and resources in addressing community needs over the long term.

But there is a growing existential crisis amidst numerous converging and intersecting trends affecting every aspect of our daily lives, including the world of philanthropy. People feel the pressure of what some are beginning to call the global polycrisis, which includes (1) economic inequality, (2) economic insecurity, (3) mass migration, (4) climate crisis, and (5) threats to our current systems and norms. Every aspect of the polycrisis has been caused by economic, political, and social systems that are strained and unfit for our communities in the modern era. Foundations have a long history of addressing community needs. However, the moment calls upon us to explore how we leverage our own capital to address these systemic challenges in ways that go beyond grantmaking and facilitating our own capital growth. In the Canadian context, a handful of recent examples are underscoring this point, from large capital transfers supporting the creation of identity-based philanthropic institutions, notably the Indigenous Peoples Resilience Fund and the Foundations for Black Communities, to one of Canada’s leading private foundations, the Ivey Foundation, announcing the wind-down and disbursement of its entire endowment to support Canada’s transition to a net-zero economy.

As economic inequality and insecurity accelerate, public foundations continue to aggregate and accumulate wealth, attracting some skepticism and attention to our role in the economic system. Some are asking the question, “How can large philanthropic foundations continue to amass record endowments as more and more people are falling into the cracks of over-stressed systems?” As Carnegie contended, the “common good” is best served when “the surplus wealth of a few will become, in the best sense, the property of the many.” Philanthropy is being tasked to confront our own relationships and how we are influenced and governed. We may have the capital on our balance sheets, but how much agency should we have in deploying that very capital? Each philanthropic institution must examine themselves to truly understand if we are serving the “many.” Acting as intermediaries between the few and the many has been our necessary function in the transfer of resources in the economic system. It is a role we must constantly evaluate and center in our decisions.

Read the full article about philanthropy by Andrew Chunilall at Stanford Social Innovation Review.