Historical Context of American Philanthropy

• Ford Foundation exists 80 years, founded on Andrew Carnegie's 1889 "Gospel of Wealth"
• Carnegie's model used by titans: John D. Rockefeller, JP Morgan, Henry Ford, Andrew Mellon, Bill Gates, Michael Bloomberg
• Traditional philanthropy: wealthy give back to improve lot of "common men, poor, dispossessed, disadvantaged"
• Martin Luther King challenged this model: "philanthropy is commendable but should not allow philanthropist to overlook economic injustice which makes philanthropy necessary"
• King questioned inequality that made wealth possible, challenged wealthy to examine complicity in economic injustice

Current Crisis and Need for Change

• Living in "age of inequality" - must reconsider philanthropy and capitalism
• Key question shifted from "what do I do to give back?" to "what am I willing to give up?"
• System based on racism and capitalism generated "far too little shared prosperity"
• Hopelessness identified as "great threat of our time" along with climate
• "Hope is the oxygen of democracy"
• George Floyd murder as metaphor: breath taken from body by protector, parallels marginalized communities "being asphyxiated by system that does not recognize their humanity"

Challenges in Communication and Language

• Many tired of constraining language to make privileged people comfortable
• Privileged people must become uncomfortable to make progress
• Privilege "buys insulation from being uncomfortable"
• George Floyd murder: moment many white Americans could "no longer be comfortable with racism"
• African-American hearts "broken for centuries" due to racism
• Language about racism necessarily makes privileged people uncomfortable

Specific Changes Needed

• Tax policies that bolster wealth of privileged
• Legacy admissions systems in colleges
• Expectation that wealth entitles "place at front of line"
• Fast track/lane for wealthy and privileged in all aspects of society
• Examples: sporting events, Disneyland fast passes
• Meritocracy belief among successful: rules generally fair because they're winners
• Many have "started with nothing" stories but ignore advantages (e.g., "white man with Harvard Business School degree in 1978")

Walker's Personal Journey

• Born bottom 1%, charity hospital in poor rural Louisiana community
• First class of Head Start program, summer 1965, Ames Texas (population 1,200)
• Never attended private education - "great pride"
• Financed by public-private partnership: Pell grants, private philanthropy
• Felt country "cheering me on" despite facing racism and homophobia
• Now in top 1% - "been on both sides of inequality equation"
• Concerned today's poor children don't feel America cheering them on

Historical Progress and Reversal (1965-1978)

• Tremendous progress 1965-1978: high school/college graduation rates, wages, employment levels for blacks at all-time highs
• Progress reversed when whites saw black progress as threat
• Affirmative action attacked as "reverse discrimination"
• Supreme Court case outlawed racial quotas
• Walker: "product of affirmative action" - country acknowledged historical legacy
• Convergence of harmful policies:
  • Reversal of progressive policies
  • Economy marginalizing black workers
  • Criminal justice system proactively incarcerating blacks/browns at higher rates

Criminal Justice Reform and Nuance

• "Defense of nuance" piece: seeking common ground replaced by "retreat to corners"
• Oppositional, nuanced-averse posture rewards ideological purity, public shame
• Rikers Island example: supported smaller, modern prisons as compromise
• Activists opposed any jail building
• Believes in nuance for complex societal challenges
• "Defund police" movement gained currency post-George Floyd
• Previously marginal idea now mainstream due to exhaustion with incremental change

Corporate Accountability

• Need "reckoning in corporate America" aligned with national reckoning
• Built-in barriers: race-based, gender-based promotion/recognition mechanisms
• Accountability through: media follow-up, nonprofits, ESG organizations, civil rights groups
• Change corporate composition beyond tokenism
• Private equity oversight needed - "millions of Americans employed" behind curtain
• Move from "tokenism to transformation" on boards

Ford Foundation Operational Changes

• Shifted from 21% to 76% general operating support (vs project support)
• BUILD initiative: 5-year general operating grants
• General operating support endorses leadership, board, mission, vision, execution
• Institutions sustain social change - examples: MLK had SCLC, Gloria Steinem had MS Foundation
• Beyond 5% payout: deploying other 95% of capital more innovatively

Social Bond Innovation

• $1 billion social bond, 50-year instrument, 2.8% interest rate
• Doubles payout for 2 years ($550M normally to over $1B for 2 years)
• Oversubscribed: $5.8B orders for $1B offering
• Proceeds for general operating support: racial justice, reproductive rights, human rights, arts
• Historic low rates, first foundation bond of its kind
• Demonstrates investor hunger for social impact investing

Arts and Cultural Support

• $175M of $1B social bond for arts
• Government must do more in next federal funding round
• Creative funding needed: UK billionaire family considering arts trust/bond
• Higher education inequality: HBCUs "living hand-to-mouth" vs well-endowed Ivies
• Proposed: Ivy League social bond worth billions to strengthen 100+ HBCUs
• Privileged arts organizations (Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center) will survive
• Concern for arts organizations led by people of color without endowments/emergency funding

Wealth and Taxation

• Cannot have progress reducing inequality without taxing wealth
• Generational wealth holders often generous, empathetic (understand "lottery" nature)
• Newly wealthy more challenging: "I made money, mine to decide what to do with"
• Combination of "arrogance and ignorance" among some newly wealthy
• Some entrepreneurs show bold philanthropic vision
• Preference for "shiny silver object" vs long-term institutional investment
• Systemic racism requires sustained institutional approach

Signs of Hope and Change

• More privileged/powerful people share diagnosis of inequality problem
• Billionaire who previously called inequality talk "downer" now comfortable discussing racism
• Fortune 500 CEO shared Walker's op-ed on stock buybacks with board
• Executive compensation distorted by share buyback policies
• Seeing reckoning with American history previously unacknowledged
• References Langston Hughes' "Let America Be America Again" (1938)
• Hughes: "America never was America to me" but "someday America will be"
• Walker: "time for America to be America is today"