Town Hall Events to Spotlight Need to Stop the Warehousing of Charitable Dollars

Three top groups working for philanthropic reform are hosting two national town halls that could save our charities and move many more charitable dollars back to local communities.

CalNonprofits, Community Centric Fundraising Network, and Charity Initiative of the Institute for Policy Studies are co-hosting the online events, which are open to the public.

The pandemic has pushed the need for services from the nonprofit sector to heights not seen since the Great Depression. At the same time, city and state budgets are not able to keep up, and federal aid did not go far enough in supporting either charities or cities and states.

All the while, billionaires have seen their wealth increase by $800 billion during the pandemic as the stock market is back up at record highs. Wealthy investors are winning, while millions are unemployed, and hundreds of thousands have died of COVID-19.

Meanwhile, some $1.2 trillion in wealth is warehoused in private foundations and donor-advised funds.

Learn why and what we can do to stop it by attending one or both sessions detailed below:

Session I: What’s Broken in the Foundation and Donor Landscape?

Monday, September 21, 2:00 pm – 3:15 pm Eastern

Current tax rules have enabled wealthy donors to obtain charitable tax deductions while warehousing most of their charitable funds for decades or more. As a result, more than $1 trillion dollars is not reaching front-line nonprofits in desperate need right now.

What are the current rules governing philanthropy, especially foundations and donor-advised funds? How do these funds operate in practice? Are wealthy people using them to game the system?

Featured speakers include:

Moderator: Vu Le, Nonprofit AF and Community Centric Fundraising

Edgar Villanueva, author of Decolonizing Wealth

Andrea Caupain, CEO of Byrd Barr Place

Chuck Collins, Institute for Policy Studies and Inequality.org

Session II: Fixing Philanthropy for Communities – At Least Temporarily

Monday, October 5, 2:00 pm – 3:15 pm Eastern

In these trying times we see great examples of funders stepping up to meet the crises of COVID-19, racial injustice, and more. But these inspiring examples hide the broken funding system that keeps too much money locked away from the charities that need it now.

What are some of the national and state efforts looking to address the issues identified in Session I? This session will include leaders of the Emergency Charity Stimulus Campaign, an effort to change foundation and donor-advised fund giving for three years.

Featured speakers include:

Moderator: Jan Masaoka, California Association of Nonprofits (CalNonprofits)

Farhad Ebrahimi, Founder and President of the Chorus Foundation

Ellen Dorsey, Executive Director of Wallace Global Fund

Other speakers being confirmed