One Way Mega-Donors Can Offset Their Clout: Empower Community Funders
Some who worry about the rising influence of billionaire philanthropists, myself included, tend to be of two minds: We like the idea that the wealthy are harnessing their fortunes to social good and we're excited by the prospect of lots of new money flowing into the social sector.
What's a cause for concern, though, is that a tiny sliver of the population—which is already hugely powerful in U.S. society—is set to exercise even greater influence in coming decades through philanthropy. That influence has the potential to distort the priorities of both civil society and public policy by elevating the priorities of the super-wealthy—a group whose views on many issues differ from those of the general public. A future in which donors from the top .01 percent increasingly decide which nonprofits and ideas get backing feels out of step with the egalitarian ideals of U.S. society. . .