"By making the foundations and individual donors actually collaborate, they come to know how shitty of an experience it can be and how much resources it takes. They learn that most of your meetings are not kumbaya. So then the funders don't have unfair expectations of the grantees to be like: you had one meeting. Why didn’t you figure it all out?”
I appreciate this point because it emphasizes how effective it is to learn-by-doing. Rather than operating from a place of hypothetical, intellectual argumentation, we need to double down on spaces where wealthy folks are invited to work together in ways that enable a lived experience of what it takes to set individualism aside and collectively organize over time to advance a shared strategy. Rather than focusing on getting people to adopt an understanding **before** doing a thing, we might recognize that they'll gain an understanding **through** doing a thing — and have the added benefit of making valuable contributions in the process.
"Funder briefings act like just telling the rich the right analysis will shift things. It won't."
Exactly! This is also why much of the content-focused ways that folks operationalize 'narrative change' and 'culture change' work fails — because we have to embody the narrative and cultural shifts, not just change our rhetoric. So, I always emphasize this piece about 'practicing our principles' and allowing our actions to speak as being the most effective narrative and culture change strategy.
I'm curious what you think this looks like (or could look like) in an 'organizing the rich' context, particularly since it's such intimate and all-encompassing work.
This was powerful, and the part about navigating how we go about organizing wealthy folks of different backgrounds really resonated with me. Having been organized and politicized as a young person with wealth and class privilege, who is biracial but presents as white and whose white father controls the family wealth, I had to learn the hard way that the way I was moved towards wealth redistribution (the "win-win") did not vibe with most of my BIPOC peers. Our history of racial capitalism is rife with examples of communities of color who were able to begin building wealth in this country only to have it violently taken away. Things are no different now and we can't forget it. Thanks Mike for this great interview and Ludovic for these insights and calls to keep taking the hard ways if we truly want to live in a different world.
Thanks Chuck for your reflections. So glad this piece resonated and I loved that part of Ludovic's interview too. So helpful to have him articulate the different realities of white and poc wealth because of racism....and what that means for the types of politics (and giving) those different groups are drawn to and have space to hold.
There are so many more honest and challenging conversations that are needed to truly build a multiracial crew of wealthy folks aligned with progressive movements!
"By making the foundations and individual donors actually collaborate, they come to know how shitty of an experience it can be and how much resources it takes. They learn that most of your meetings are not kumbaya. So then the funders don't have unfair expectations of the grantees to be like: you had one meeting. Why didn’t you figure it all out?”
I appreciate this point because it emphasizes how effective it is to learn-by-doing. Rather than operating from a place of hypothetical, intellectual argumentation, we need to double down on spaces where wealthy folks are invited to work together in ways that enable a lived experience of what it takes to set individualism aside and collectively organize over time to advance a shared strategy. Rather than focusing on getting people to adopt an understanding **before** doing a thing, we might recognize that they'll gain an understanding **through** doing a thing — and have the added benefit of making valuable contributions in the process.
Yes! Yes! Yes! That's what I've seen too over and over. Learning by doing. Theory + Action. Not one without the other.
I've seen over and over how funder briefings act like just telling the rich the right analysis will shift things.
It won't. They need to have lived experiences of doing it different.
"Funder briefings act like just telling the rich the right analysis will shift things. It won't."
Exactly! This is also why much of the content-focused ways that folks operationalize 'narrative change' and 'culture change' work fails — because we have to embody the narrative and cultural shifts, not just change our rhetoric. So, I always emphasize this piece about 'practicing our principles' and allowing our actions to speak as being the most effective narrative and culture change strategy.
I'm curious what you think this looks like (or could look like) in an 'organizing the rich' context, particularly since it's such intimate and all-encompassing work.
This was powerful, and the part about navigating how we go about organizing wealthy folks of different backgrounds really resonated with me. Having been organized and politicized as a young person with wealth and class privilege, who is biracial but presents as white and whose white father controls the family wealth, I had to learn the hard way that the way I was moved towards wealth redistribution (the "win-win") did not vibe with most of my BIPOC peers. Our history of racial capitalism is rife with examples of communities of color who were able to begin building wealth in this country only to have it violently taken away. Things are no different now and we can't forget it. Thanks Mike for this great interview and Ludovic for these insights and calls to keep taking the hard ways if we truly want to live in a different world.
Thanks Chuck for your reflections. So glad this piece resonated and I loved that part of Ludovic's interview too. So helpful to have him articulate the different realities of white and poc wealth because of racism....and what that means for the types of politics (and giving) those different groups are drawn to and have space to hold.
There are so many more honest and challenging conversations that are needed to truly build a multiracial crew of wealthy folks aligned with progressive movements!