Unfinished Business: Post-Spendout Reflections from TBP Senior Fellow Pia Infante
By Pia Infante
It has been just a few short months since The Whitman Institute (TWI), my beloved former institution, closed its doors for good. This ending was a deliberate one. While those of us on the team ended with a dual sense of pride and completion, I had a lingering sense of unfinished business.
It goes back to the origins of the spend-out decision. TWI decided to spend out because so many foundations had constricted their giving following the financial crash of 2008/2009. TWI pivoted in a different direction: Why not give it all away as the social, political, and economic circumstances were becoming more dire for so many communities? When we signaled to our grantee partners (social movement nonprofit leaders) that we were spending out, they responded swiftly with a new mission for us, should we choose to accept it. They wanted us to use our remaining time and resources to influence our philanthropic peers to shift the sector away from control and domination towards humility, collaboration, and trust. We accepted this charge, and started engaging our like-spirited colleagues. This peer organizing effort planted the seeds for the launch of the Trust Based Philanthropy Project in 2020.
As TWI moved closer to shutting our doors in June 2022, I asked myself: Did we complete the mission laid out for us by our grantee partners? Had our efforts contributed to philanthropy truly reimagining itself in a spirit of service? Short answer (you guessed it): no.
Thankfully, along with that no came an accompanying yes. I am thrilled and honored at the chance to continue the work of transforming our sector as Senior Fellow at the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project. In concert with many sister efforts in the sector, I will be supporting change within organizations, advocacating through embodiment, and crafting resources intended to deepen the definition and understanding of trust-based philanthropy. Scaffolding culture and organizational shifts also brings me back to my roots in teaching, organizational development and coaching – and I welcome coming home into that kind of support role again.
One other aspect of this that feels unfinished to me is how trust-based philanthropy can be superficially described as a few key grantmaking practice shifts, e.g., multi-year unrestricted funding and streamlining paperwork. These are important but incomplete elements that are intended to add up to a larger cultural and structural grappling with power and equity within teams and organizations, embedded in partnerships of mutual learning and accountability, and a reckoning with the extractive history and ecosystems of philanthropy.
In the next two and half years, I realize that it may be aspirational to imagine finishing the business of transforming the sector and ensuring that trust-based philanthropy is defined and understood in its most expansive terms. But it is to this unfinished business that I apply myself with hope and trust. If you too are motivated by this call, I look forward to syncing up with you in a myriad of joyful and purposeful ways in this role.
Pia Infante is the Senior Fellow at the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project