The Courageous Giving Framework: A Philanthropic Strategy to Build a Just Democracy


credit: maltatoday

"We may have never imagined that fascism would be looming in our lifetimes, and yet, this is where we find ourselves."

That's the takeaway from a New York Times op-ed by actress and activist Patricia Arquette, who says that over the past 40 years, "individual donors, corporations, donor-advised funds (DAFs), and super PACs have lavishly funded the right."

The " results of decades of strategic, unrestricted funding streams are reflected in an effectively organized movement that has gradually shifted toward extremism," she writes.

"This political moment calls for a comprehensive philanthropic strategy that protects marginalized communities from physical and political attacks while building the economic, cultural, and political power we need to create a future where we all can thrive."

To that end, Arquette has created the Courageous Giving Framework, a blueprint for giving to progressive causes.

"It calls for funders to be as ruthlessly strategic as our opposition and shift from a defensive posture to an offensive one," she writes.

"As a former resident of North Carolina, I've watched as strategic funding to conservative groups subverted the will of the people by shifting a purple state into a gerrymandered red state," she writes.

"North Carolina has become a testing ground for conservative

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Caroline Diehl is a serial social entrepreneur in the impact media space. She is Executive Chair and Founder of the UK’s only charitable and co-operatively owned national broadcast television channel Together TV, the leading broadcaster for social change runs a national TV channel in the UK and digital platform which helps people find inspiration to do good in their lives and communities.




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