The Role of Philanthropy in Successful Social Movements

By Ned Calonge, MD, MPH, The Colorado Trust

Why do some social movements for change succeed and others fail? Why is it that ‘Occupy Wall Street’ resulted in arguably minimal effect from a policy standpoint, while efforts to achieve marriage equality for all Americans have gained enormous traction at both the state and national level?

Manuel Pastor, PhD, a professor of American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California, shared his fascinating research and thoughts on the intricate factors involved with social movements during our most recent Health Equity Learning Series event. (You can watch Pastor’s entire presentation online, as well as our discussion with audience members afterward.) There are three words that embody the framework for a successful social movement, Pastor told us: projects, policy and power. “Projects demonstrate what’s possible,” Pastor explained. “Policy makes the ‘possible’ standard operating procedure – but it’s power that actually changes policy.”

Pastor said foundations are especially prone to only focusing on the first of the three, and I agree with his sentiment that it takes more than a demonstration project to result in lasting change. Government has been known to fall into this rut as well, Pastor pointed out. That reminded me of some of the pilot programs for bundled payments and accountable care now underway in the post-health care reform era. Yet Medicare is still largely a fee-for-service system, four years after the Affordable Care Act was passed – and a truly populist, nationwide social movement for reasonably priced health care hasn’t emerged thus far.

Pastor highlighted 10 essential elements to a successful social movement, among them solid research, a pragmatic policy package and a strategy for scaling up. The marriage equality movement has embodied each of these three elements, and they helped solidify and advance the policy concept of “civil unions” as a realistic place to start in states with more conservative legislatures. You can view Pastor’s slides from his presentation to see his complete Top 10 list of elements.

The advice Pastor provided for foundations during the Q&A portion of the event is also worth keeping in mind:

• DON’T think of philanthropy itself as a social movement: “You’re not changing things, you’re funding people that change things,” Pastor said. “You’re co-learners.”
• DO collaborate with other philanthropic entities: “Why ask [grantees] for 10 different theories of change? One small organization is going to have a hard time doing that. Why not collaborate among the foundations?”
• DON’T get upset when the people you’re funding make other people angry: “That’s their job. They may get into a little hot water, and you should have an expectation that will be the case.”
• DO stick with grantees for the long run: “Understand that this stuff takes some time. Try to figure out the people or organizations you want to bet on… that’s what venture capitalists do.”

We have many more exciting speakers planned for this year’s Health Equity Learning Series. Our next event is scheduled for Aug. 21 and will feature Llewellyn Smith, a filmmaker and the Project Director for BlueSpark Collaborative, as well as Laura Frank, Executive Director of I-News at Rocky Mountain PBS. They’ll discuss Smith’s recent award-winning documentary, “Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?” as well as the I-News special report, “Losing Ground.” Registration will be available on our website in the near future; for information on attending in person or streaming the event online, please sign up for our mailing list.