In December of 2016, TWI allocated $250,000 in rapid response funds to protect and build power within communities most vulnerable to the rollback of civil and human rights promised by the then new administration. Rather than create a new system, we leaned into our trust based grantmaking process to expend the $250,000 by the…
The Trump effect, at The Whitman Institute (and elsewhere) By Marc Gunther The Trump administration is having an unmistakable impact on philanthropy. That was brought home to me at this month’s Skoll World Forum, notably with the Omidyar Network’s promise to commit $100 million to support independent journalism and combat hate. On a panel about philanthropy, Laleh Ispahani of…
The recent election was a disaster that will continue to unfold in the months ahead. Many of our partners and colleagues have written posts that have resonated and give me hope as the outlook gets more grim. In her recent post Pia spoke for me as well, reaffirming our commitment to our mission and values…
What if we as funders started with trust, instead of making potential partners “earn” it? Vu Le starts our sibling blog posts today by questioning the assumption that grant seekers need to prove their basic trustworthiness to funders. Indeed, up-ending this premise has been inherent in TWI’s approach since we started making grants. TWI’s 9 Practices…
Most grants and reports happen on paper. Here at the Whitman Institute (TWI), we like to do things a little differently. Recently, we invited current and potential supporters for one of our core grantees, Voice of Witness (VOW), for lunch at the office. Our relationship with VOW had come full-circle: Six years earlier, TWI Co-Executive…