July marks America’s 250th anniversary. In the current climate, it feels like a complicated milestone, one that invites both pride in our country’s achievements and outrage over the recent attacks on our constitution and democracy. I’ve been thinking and writing about the country’s failure to live up to its promise, lamenting the ways it has fallen short of its aspirations, principles and ideals. Despite these deep disappointments, I believe the anniversary offers a distinct opportunity for reflection, acknowledgement and even celebration. At the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, we are using this historic moment to honor the generosity that has guided and shaped our nation, while recognizing the vital role philanthropy and nonprofits continue to play in partnering with communities to build a more fair and just future.
I recently attended Grantmakers for Effective Organizations’ conference, where I was lucky to be present for a powerful closing speech by activist, filmmaker and founder of the Revolutionary Love Project, Valerie Kaur. She reminded us that at the root of philanthropy is a deep love of humanity. It was such a simple concept, but it reinvigorated a sense of purpose and possibility for those in the room. I came away with a renewed sense that the work we do as philanthropists is not only important but intrinsically linked with the work we must do as a country.
Philanthropy’s Role In Shaping Our Nation
As Kaur so eloquently expressed, philanthropy embodies our innate impulse to care for one another. It has been a fixture of American life since before the country’s founding and has played a decisive role in protecting democracy when public institutions faltered or retreated. By building infrastructure for education, investing in public health, nurturing the arts, protecting the environment and expanding opportunities for civic participation, philanthropy has fostered innovation, widened access and enriched life for many.
During Reconstruction, private philanthropy helped fill gaps by funding schools, colleges and organizations for newly liberated people, often in the face of violent backlash. Religious and civic donors, alongside public efforts like the Freedmen’s Bureau, helped lay the groundwork for Black education by founding Historically Black Colleges and Universities and providing legal services and pathways for civic participation. Philanthropy again proved essential in the Civil Rights Era: supporting litigation, organizing and voter education as well as backing movement leaders when government hostility made such work dangerous or near impossible.
In each era, philanthropy has worked to protect the people and conditions that allowed our democracy to function and our society to advance. Progress is often imperfect, slow and laborious, but the work is essential and evergreen.
By investing in the nonprofits and communities who work tirelessly at the front lines of change, philanthropy plays a definitive role in breaking through the status quo.
Our Contributions To The Philanthropic Legacy
As a grantmaking foundation, we are proud to be a part of the American legacy of giving. Our grantees are scientists advancing Inflammatory Bowel Disease research, artists pushing creative boundaries and organizations working to close the literacy gap for young learners. They represent our country at its best: a place of individual ambition and collective determination, of diverse perspectives and great minds, where curiosity, care and risk lead to innovation and progress. We are endlessly impressed by what happens when visionary thinkers are supported: they become free to imagine possibilities, to fail, to build, to change the world.
Our grantees have made incredible strides through community-led solutions and scientific innovation. Arts grantees like California for the Arts, BLACspace Cooperative and Artist Space Trust are radically reimagining how to sustain Bay Area Artists through community-based real estate projects, affordable housing and advocacy fellowships. An Education grantee, Cox Academy, strategically altered their learning model to meaningfully boost student outcomes. Ongoing investment in biomedical startups has led to promising results in refractory ulcerative colitis and novel IBD therapies and research processes. Each of these organizations has experimented with new approaches and untested theories, made possible with philanthropic support. Their work brings us closer to a more creative, healthy and humane society.
Moving Forward With Conviction
When America’s founders signed the Declaration of Independence 250 years ago, they were committing to a vision of self-governance, liberty and equality. As we take stock of how this vision has played out, we feel a fierce obligation to defend our values, our communities and the hard-won progress achieved through the sacrifice of so many. We understand that philanthropy must lead with courage, humility and solidarity, and that we must evolve to meet the scale of injustice and democratic threat.
The Rainin Foundation stands with the communities we support. We will continue fighting for the work of our creative thinkers, as well as the many institutions, liberties and values that are currently under attack. Through our Response Fund, we are investing in organizations at the forefront of protecting our democracy and the nonprofit sector. We have also united nationally with funders to uphold fundamental rights, knowing that solidarity is imperative as we strive to stand up against those who hold power and preserve inequitable systems.
Our country has faced paradigm shifts before when powerful forces pulled us toward fear, division and scarcity, and the very foundation of our society seemed to be giving way. Yet we rose to the challenge. We know that when we harness our power, we can hold America to its promise of dignity, freedom, equality and justice for all.
History reminds us that even in the face of oppression, hope endures, resistance grows and people will unite to shape what comes next.
Building Together
Today, we are celebrating the freedom to stand up for what we believe in, to give in accordance with our values and to imagine new possibilities for our collective future. As we do so, questions emerge:
- What will our next 250 years look like?
- How can we continue to build networks of hope and shared prosperity through the ways we give?
- How will we express our love for humanity through our actions, our investments, our partnerships and our institutions?
We are endlessly inspired by our grantees, whose work invites us to imagine a future that reflects our highest values and aspirations, even amid significant uncertainty. If we are guided by their wisdom, as well as a spirit of generosity, civic engagement and shared responsibility, the next 250 years can be defined not only by what we inherit, but by what we build as philanthropists, nonprofits and communities. Together, we can work to live up to the promises of our country and of philanthropy itself. We can continue to care for one another other and build a world that reflects that care.
About the Author
Shelley Trott, Executive Director
Kenneth Rainin Foundation
