Giving Compass' Take:

• Writing for Justice Funders, BALLE's Rodney Foxworth examines inequality in our society and how philanthropy can exacerbate the issue. Instead, we must look for systems change.

• Philanthropists should find no need to get defensive: Foxworth praises large philanthropic efforts that provide capital for community-led systems change. But we still must ask the tough question: If we're not part of the solution, are we the problem?

• Here's more on why systems change and equity go hand-in-hand.

Philanthropy is not synonymous with social justice, social change, or even charity. In fact, philanthropy, like extreme poverty, is simply a byproduct of social, gender, racial, and economic injustice.

The conundrum we face is that philanthropy is used to address problems caused by an economic system that engenders radical wealth inequality  —  thus making philanthropy necessary in the first place. In 2017, 82 percent of all wealth created went to the richest 1%. The world’s richest 500 billionaires’ net worth grew 24% to $5.38 trillion while the poorest 50 percent saw no increase in wealth at all. Last year, the world’s billionaires saw their collective wealth increase by $762 billion, enough money to put an end to global extreme poverty seven times over.

This massive surge in wealth  —  or put another way, wealth redistributed to the richest percentile  —  comes during an era when “workers’ rights” is perfunctory at best, an oxymoron at worse, and Wall Street maintains a myopic focus on shareholder returns.

In seeking solutions to what plagues us, formal philanthropy and the monied class it represents often overlooks the need for systems change, which requires challenging entrenched power.

Philanthropy can and should play a role in systems change  —  and it has historically. However, we must acknowledge that a smart set of billionaires, millionaires, and their largesse  —  whose wealth and power are the driving forces that perpetuate systemic inequity  —  is incapable of displacing social movements and community leadership.

Most importantly, we must collectively interrogate the very economic system that makes philanthropy possible. In other words, is capitalism the system that is best suited to build our future society?

Read the full article about the role of philanthropy in systems change by Rodney Foxworth at Justice Funders.