The Intersections of Justice: Polyvalent Approaches to Justice Philanthropy by Canadian Foundations

• In Event: Justice Philanthropy during Poly-Crises

Abstract

The convergence of the global pandemic, racial and Indigenous justice movements and increased severity of climate events has seemingly created a critical juncture for institutional philanthropy. During these turning points, prevailing ideas change, power relationships among actors are realigned (Kopec, 2023; Mahoney 2002), new solutions and pathways open (Capoccia & Keleman, 2007), and opportunities for hyper-agency are enhanced (Rinscheid, et al., 2020). Justice philanthropy, by which foundations aim to make systems-change to address social and economic inequities and structural racism, appears to be the new path forged out of this set of poly-crises. Foundations have been described as ‘infamous individualists’ (Bernholz, 2001), however, which raises the empirical question: how extensive and in what ways are transitions to justice philanthropy occurring?

Drawing on the literature on critical junctures, rooted in historical institutionalism, this paper examines how private, family-controlled foundations are adopting justice-oriented approaches. Recognizing that ‘justice’ itself is a contested (and potentially loaded) term (Suarez, 2012), we first explore how private foundations define ‘justice’ philanthropy and whether they label any systems-change work as justice-oriented. Given that the current poly-crises involve multiple facets of injustice, the paper then considers whether private foundations have specialized in one aspect of justice or whether their work is polyvalent covering multiple arenas. We assess the factors that have propelled some foundations to pursue justice-oriented approaches, and how these journeys have unfolded. Specifically, we consider the influence of organizational mission (which may reinforce path dependency), geographic factors such as the local communities in which they are embedded, the ecosystem of other foundations that affect organizational identity and peer-to-peer learning (Williamson & Luke, 2021), and organizational factors including the generational status and diversity of board and staff. Finally, the paper assesses the changes that have occurred in foundations’ processes, grantmaking, collaborations, and investment strategies. In conclusion, we ask if the responses to current poly-crises stand up to the test of being a critical juncture at all (Dupont et al., 2020).

The data are based on intensive, semi-structured interviews with 30 Canadian private foundations. The participants represent: 1) foundations that have signalled an interest in climate justice by signing on to the national Philanthropic Commitment on Climate Change, which is intended to promote integration of climate action with Indigenous, racial, gender and other forms of equity-directed philanthropy; 2) foundations that have participated in a justice, equity, diversity and inclusion (JEDI) learning program hosted by their national association; 3) the subset of foundations that have signed on to both; and 4) those that have not made such visible commitments to ‘justice’ philanthropy although it may be an aspect of their work. The initial findings indicate that there is substantial change but no common path to justice philanthropy and a divergence in comfort with the use of the language of ‘justice.’ For most, the journey is still in early stages with one of the greatest challenges being how to engage with potential grantees in a way that actually ‘shifts power.’


References
Bernholz, L. (2001) Critical Junctures: Philanthropic Associations as Policy Actors. Los Angeles: USC Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy.
Cappoccia, G. and Keleman, R. D. (2007) Theory, Narrative, and Counterfactuals in Historical Institutionalism, World Politics, 59: 341-369.
Dupont, C., Oberthür and von Homeyer, I. (2020) The COVID-19 Crisis: A critical juncture for EU climate policy development? Journal of European Integration, 42(8): 1095-1110.
Kopec, A. (2023) Critical Junctures as Complex Processes: Examining mechanisms of policy change and path dependence in the Canadian pandemic response to homelessness, Journal of Public Policy, 43: 447-467.
Mahoney, J. (2002) Legacies of Liberalism. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Rinscheid, A., Eberlein, B., Emmenegger, P. and Schneider, V. (2020) Why do Junctures Become Critical? Political discourse, agency, and joint belief shifts in comparative perspective, Regulation & Governance,14: 653-673.
Suarez, D. F. (2012) Grantmaking as Advocacy: The emergence of social justice philanthropy, Nonprofit Management & Leadership, 22(3) 259-279).
Williamson, A. and Luke, B. (2021) Exploring the accountability and organizational identity of public philanthropic foundations, International Journal of Management Reviews, 23(3): 394-410.

Authors

• Susan D Phillips, Carleton University

• Melissa Wilson