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Philanthropy in Restorative Justice Media Programs

Lilly Family School of Philanthropy
This article is deemed a must-read by one or more of our expert collaborators.
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Philanthropy in Restorative Justice Media Programs Giving Compass
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Giving Compass' Take:

• Amanda Weitman, an online grad student and wealth advisor for Wells Fargo Private Bank, shares her experience working with a restorative justice organization that helps incarcerated men publish and distribute a newspaper throughout California prisons. 

• During Weitman’s time working with the inmates, she discussed ways to retain relationships with the newspaper’s donors. What is the benefit for donors to fund this program? 

• Read about the value of education access in prisons.


In our second post about philanthropy in America, online master’s degree student Amanda Weitman had the opportunity to learn that incarcerated individuals can be philanthropists, giving their time, talent, treasure and testimony to writing a newspaper that informs its readership about life in prison and the good that happens behind bars.

A wealth advisor for Wells Fargo Private Bank, Weitman has her bachelor’s degree in business administration and economics, her Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy® designation and an MBA.

When the 2008 Great Recession hit, she made a concerted effort to talk with clients about philanthropy.  This ultimately led to a peer-led book club within Wells Fargo Private Bank.

The philanthropy book club ultimately led Weitman to an interest in restorative justice. She was introduced to this topic by an organization named Project Avary, which provides a 10-year mentorship program and summer camp for kids whose parent(s) are incarcerated. Participating in a walk-a-thon at the local state penitentiary to raise money for Project Avary, Weitman was introduced to other nonprofits that also focused on restorative justice. One of those organizations was Friends of San Quentin News.

San Quentin News is a newspaper written and edited by a group of incarcerated men and published and distributed to all of the prisons in California. The staff invited Weitman to conduct a workshop for them on philanthropy and fundraising, which included discussing the social benefits of the newspaper that business and government were not providing, studying the newspapers’ mission statement, understanding the paper and staff’s core values, and understanding fundraising as relationship building.

“The news staff are philanthropic. They give of their time, talent and treasure. When they realized that their contributions made them philanthropists, you should have seen the looks on their faces,” Weitman explained.

Read the full article about philanthropy by Abby Rolland at Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.

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Learning and benchmarking are key steps towards becoming an impact giver. If you are interested in giving with impact on Philanthropy take a look at these selections from Giving Compass.

  • This article is deemed a must-read by one or more of our expert collaborators.
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    Unleashing the Power of Mission-Related Investing

    Giving Compass' Take: • Ford Foundation discusses the steps it is taking to adopt a mission-related investing approach that incorporates financial returns and advances the progress of a foundation's mission. • Are you ready to engage in mission-related investing? What are the first steps in your transition to mission-related investing?  • Read more about what mission-related investments can do for philanthropy. For the better part of two decades, the world of philanthropy has been engaged in an important, sometimes contested, conversation about “impact”—both how we measure it and how we deliver it. As with most foundations, our own impact-related work—our support for individuals, institutions, and ideas—has remained almost entirely separate from the way we steward our endowment. While most of our work is grantmaking, the vast majority of our assets are actually financial investments. The time is right for us to look at this paradigm with fresh eyes—to consider how we might start to bridge the gap between philanthropic impact and investments. Indeed, we have come to believe that if we expect to overcome the forces of injustice and inequality, we need to expand our imaginations and our arsenals. In short, we must begin to more deliberately leverage the power of our endowment. Today, we have an opportunity to build on this proud, powerful legacy. Previous divestment movements tried to prevent investors from harming society; now, institutional investors can begin to move from “do no harm” to exploring how to “do more good.” That brings us to [Mission-Related Investments] MRIs. Through this new tool, we will leverage the power of our endowment and start to unlock the potential of the 95 percent to create impact through the market. MRIs seek to achieve attractive financial returns while also advancing the foundation’s mission. Unlike PRIs, they can bring to bear large amounts of capital in the service of multiple bottom lines. Since the birth of foundations, our endowments have been essential to our work. Going forward, I believe they will become an essential part of our work and how we continue that work into the future. This is the next great challenge in philanthropy: to find and finance more social good than we ever have before. Read the full article about mission-related investing by Darren Walker at Stanford Social Innovation Review.


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If you are interested in Criminal Justice, please see these relevant events, training, conferences or volunteering opportunities the Giving Compass team recommends.

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