Trust-Based Blog
Reimagining philanthropy begins with learning out loud.
By sharing ideas, with curiosity and humility, the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project blog features trust-based grantmakers who talk about their own lessons, questions, and aha-moments along their power-sharing journeys.
The Power of Giving Up Power
“When I gave up some of my own personal power, we became a more powerful organization.” -John Esterle
Foundation Leaders, It’s Time to Shrink the Gap Between Words & Deeds
As a trust-based philanthropy advocate and co-executive director of The Whitman Institute, John Esterle has long considered multiyear general operating support a best practice for effective grantmaking. In this Center for Effective Philanthropy blog post, Esterle unpacks why so many foundation leaders support this approach in theory, but stop short of actually providing it.
The Urgency of Trust-Based Philanthropy
As sectors and organizations are reassessing the status quo, philanthropy has a unique, and urgent, opportunity. The Whitman Institute’s co-executive director John Esterle reflects on how foundations must meet the moment we are in with responsiveness, adaptability, and creativity. “To do so means rethinking basic assumptions about impact and attribution, power and control, learning and relationships, role and job, endowments and organization lifespans.”