Giving Compass' Take:

• Martin Levine discusses how the issue of taxation and philanthropy impacts nonprofits that rely on both for financial support. 

• How should this balance be struck? Should wealthy philanthropists have the power to choose which causes get the most support? 

• Learn about democratizing philanthropy.

Last fall, Ruth McCambridge, quoting Ted Lechterman, raised this question as NPQ covered Jeff Bezos’s $2 billion leap into philanthropy: “Members of the public have a vital interest in being able to oversee the provision of goods and services that support their most basic needs. This kind of accountability is possible only when these needs are served by democratic governments, not rich benefactors operating in their place.”

For the nonprofit sector, which depends on both sources of funding, this debate is more than an intellectual exercise. If charitable giving is an important feature of a healthy environment, does it matter that fewer people can afford to be donors and more giving comes from a diminishing group of wealthy individuals? Does it matter that the broad definition of “philanthropy” values help for the homeless and hungry as much as Harvard University’s next new building? Does it matter that a gift to a donor-advised fund is seen as charitable as a gift for medical research?

If these decisions have weight, nonprofits need to risk speaking up, joining Bergman and other voices who see the need for systemic change that places philanthropy and government in a different relationship. We need to risk the ire of Goldman and other wealthy philanthropists in service of a better way to get the societal changes we know are needed and help those we are there to serve.

Read the full article about philanthropic and government support for nonprofits by Martin Levine at Nonprofit Quarterly.