New Mountain Climbers

In Hebrew, the word that gets translated as charity is tzedakah, but that’s not exactly right. The root is tzedek, which means justice or righteousness. So tzedakah isn’t really charity, it’s just action. And it’s not a matter of generosity but moral imperative. That difference matters because charity is admirable, but as the quote goes, it’s no substitute for justice withheld.

I’m going to speak honestly today. At some previous Expanding Community Giving events, it’s come up that "philanthropy" or "philanthropist" are labels that many folks associate with wealthy, white people. We’ve heard it’s a label that many people who work tirelessly for others, and who statistically give a higher percentage of their income and net wealth than those who write bigger checks, don’t claim ...or even want. That tells us there’s a problem in philanthropy. It tells us philanthropy is out of balance — a lot of charity, but too light on justice.

Let me go further, because I worry that some folks might just think about the old saying, “give someone a fish, feed them for a day, but teach them to fish, and feed them for a lifetime” and think the first is charity and the latter justice. But the latter’s not enough. Why wasn’t there a school system that taught this person to fish? Maybe we’re systematically failing to teach people who look a certain way how to fish. And what makes us think the person has access to fishing gear or capital to buy a boat or transit to a lake? Did we bother to ask the person if fishing is even the skillset they need? And many issues have nothing to do with teaching or skills. All the financial literacy and good habits in the world wouldn’t get you a mortgage in a redlined neighborhood. More fundamentally, this whole fishing metaphor puts the philanthropist in the superior position of the teacher, the giver, the possessor of knowledge and resources.

Well, in a country that has had racial inequity built in since the beginning, is it any surprise that philanthropy that only maintains the relative positions of the charitable and the needy, the teacher and the taught, isn’t going to feel welcoming to people of color? Philanthropy that isn’t intentional about or doesn’t want to discuss racial justice, perhaps for fear that some of the charitable will be made uncomfortable, is never going to be inclusive.

That’s why we have so much to learn from the New Mountain Climbers’ philanthropy. https://thecommunitygroup.org/about/new-mountain-climbers-giving-circle/

What am I doing up here? That owes a lot to my parents and their families, from whom I learned about philanthropy and community. Many of yall know about my father’s side, the Cones. So on one level, the fact is I’m here because I was born into a prominent local family with inherited wealth and social capital, and that means I get asked to be on a lot of nonprofit boards. But the reason the Cones are here to begin with is that my triple great grandfather left Bavaria in the 1840s because Jews were excluded from much of society and deprived of political, civil, and human rights.

As a wealthy, white, cishet, non-disabled male, I have always known these rights. But through my child- and young adulthood, it became increasingly clear to me that they are denied to many in the country and in Greensboro. I walked around Grimsley in high school and saw different racial compositions in different classes and wondered why not everyone was receiving the same education I was, even within the same walls. Or in law school I saw brilliant classmates who were women or people of color, mistaken for positions like assistant or secretary or janitor in a way that I never was, and I got angry.

So I’m here because of how necessary work like that of the New Mountain Climbers is, and I’m here because it’s the responsibility of philanthropic institutions and people born into positions like mine to build justice, and that can only be done in alliance with people and groups like the New Mountain Climbers.

With that in mind, let’s start the conversation.

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The postings on this site are my own and don't necessarily represent Belpointe's positions, strategies or opinions.