The Commons in Conversation

If democracy is unraveling, what can save it? Scholar, author, and nonprofit leader Danielle Allen joins The Commons in Conversation to talk about a range of solutions championed by philanthropy and nonprofits. These include reform of institutions like Congress and the Supreme Court, investment in civics education, and a rekindling of civic spirit in local communities. Allen leads the Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation at the Harvard Kennedy School and is director of Democratic Knowled...

Does philanthropy share in the blame for America's divisions? Hali Lee, co-founder of the Donors of Color Network, believes that large foundations and billionaire donors have done plenty to pull the country apart, even as they pursue good. Lee joins Chronicle deputy opinion editor Nandita Raghuram to discuss her new book, The Big We. They talk about what Lee describes as the atomizing effect of large foundations and billionaire donors (“Big Philanthropy”), the breakdown of connectedness...

As federal Washington burns with division and conflict, some grant makers are trying to repair the country’s social fabric by strengthening communities. Join Rockefeller Brothers Fund president Stephen Heintz and Katie Loudin of the West Virginia Community Development Hub for a discussion of the year-old Trust for Civic Life, an unusual $30 million cross-ideological funder collaborative bankrolling homegrown initiatives. Members of the trust include the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Carneg...

From its post in America’s heartland, the 95-year-old W.K. Kellogg Foundation has achieved a diversity in grant making that has eluded many foundations: In the past decade, more than 40 percent of its grant dollars have gone to organizations led by people of color. La June Montgomery Tabron, CEO of the Battle Creek, Mich., grant maker, joins Chronicle of Philanthropy CEO Stacy Palmer to talk about what racial healing looks like in philanthropy and America. She also discusses her new book, How...

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Barbara Kingsolver frequently writes and talks about the origins of — and cure for — what she calls "urban-rural antipathy." Her most recent novel, Demon Copperhead, aims to dismantle stereotypes of her native Appalachia that she says infect politics and contribute to a mutual loathing between urban and rural Americans. Kingsolver joins Chronicle of Philanthropy deputy opinion editor Nandita Raghuram for a conversation about her writing and philanthropy's r...