JPB President’s Letter: Democracy is worth fighting for

Good morning,

It’s been two months since I officially became President of The JPB Foundation. I’m honored to work alongside such dedicated and caring staff, and I’m profoundly grateful to Barbara Picower, now JPB’s President Emerita, for her vision and trust. Six senior staff and five new board members with decades of experience in movements and social change have joined the JPB team.

We have a great deal of work ahead of us to shape the long-term strategy of the Foundation, in dialogue with movement leaders and colleagues in philanthropy. But we are not hitting the pause button. The first crucial task for us, and for all of civil society and philanthropy, is to uphold and strengthen multiracial democracy at a time of existential threats. This is not a time for equivocation or despair. It is a time for action.

I’m proud to announce that, since last fall, we have made (or are in the process of finalizing) 42 grants to 40 groups totaling approximately $51 million as part of this effort (see below for the list of grantees). We’ve augmented the grants of existing grantees such as Everybody Votes, the Trusted Elections Fund, and the Alliance for Youth Organizing, so that they can expand their vital work. And we're supporting first-time grantee partners like Protect Democracy Project and making new grants to directly fund organizations like Black Voters Matter Capacity Building Initiative and Arizona Center for Empowerment, groups we previously supported through collaboratives. This surge funding builds on the Foundation’s ongoing grantmaking and longstanding commitment to strengthen democracy.

We’re also proud to have joined The Democracy Fund and Open Society Foundations-US in launching the All by April campaign, in which we’ve pledged to get as much funding for non-partisan civic engagement work as possible out the door by April 2024. You can read more about All by April in this piece I co-authored with Joe Goldman and Laleh Ispahani. We’re thrilled that over 150 funders, donors, and intermediaries have signed on thus far. Grantees report that the drumbeat in philanthropy is translating into earlier funding commitments, making a real difference in their ability to do vital work in communities around the country.

A new report by The Brennan Center shows that voting disparities by race have increased since the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in Shelby v. Holder. This sobering data underscores the importance of work by organizers and advocates across the country. Over the long term, we must undo the damage that has been done to voting rights and rethink and overhaul deeply undemocratic features of our electoral system.

Unfortunately, the federal courts are not going to come to the rescue anytime soon, and any relief through federal policy solutions is unlikely this year. In the meantime, we must invest in groups with deep roots in communities that can effectively engage potential voters from marginalized communities, particularly communities of color and young people. We are stepping up to support this vital grassroots work, as we are also supporting organizations doing unglamorous but critical work to make sure that our elections are free and fair.

In addition to doing everything we can to meet the moment this year, three principles guide our work on democracy.

Taking the Long View. Many of our grantees are not only tackling immediate challenges, but also addressing the deep roots of our democratic crisis, including decades-long efforts to decimate labor unions, the decline of civic and community organizations, growing economic inequality and precarity, increasing social disconnection and isolation, and the harmful role of profit-driven platforms and social media – all of which demand sustained strategies.

Too many people across this country take for granted the norms and institutions that have in recent decades sustained democracy. A cursory examination of the country’s history shows that we are capable of big steps backwards – as when the landmark progress of Reconstruction after the Civil War was reversed through terror and the capture of major institutions like the courts. Knowing that things can move backwards as well as forwards, we must take on the work of building a robust multiracial democracy in the time horizon of decades, not election cycles.

Building a “Bigger We.” We approach the project of defending and expanding democracy with broadmindedness and open hearts. We must build a “bigger we” that includes people and sectors that are not part of the social justice choir. Insularity and sectarianism are deadly for pro-democracy movements. If we’re not uncomfortable at least some of the time, we’re probably not doing all of the work that needs to be done. Winning a durable multiracial democracy and just society requires building toward a super majority of Americans who believe in that vision. That in turn requires bringing millions more people into the fold, or else the pro-democracy coalition will never have enough power.

Engaging Hearts as Well as Minds. Authoritarianism’s power derives from its appeal to emotions. Democracy’s defenders will need to do more than marshal reasoned arguments to prevail. We might take some guidance from poets. W.H. Auden wrote in “September 1, 1939” about the feelings of exhaustion and despair that he and millions of others felt as fascism advanced across Europe.

Defenceless under the night

Our world in stupor lies;

Yet, dotted everywhere,

Ironic points of light

Flash out wherever the Just

Exchange their messages:

May I, composed like them

Of Eros and of dust,

Beleaguered by the same

Negation and despair,

Show an affirming flame.

Elizabeth Alexander, in “Praise Song for the Day,” wrote seventy years after Auden of the sacrifices and unheralded work by everyday people over centuries that helped make multiracial democracy more real. She names the essential emotion that powers democracy movements.

Say it plain: that many have died for this day.

Sing the names of the dead who brought us here,

who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges,

picked the cotton and the lettuce, built

brick by brick the glittering edifices

they would then keep clean and work inside of.

Praise song for struggle, praise song for the day.

Praise song for every hand-lettered sign,

the figuring-it-out at kitchen tables.

Some live by love thy neighbor as thyself,

others by first do no harm or take no more

than you need. What if the mightiest word is love?

Love beyond marital, filial, national,

love that casts a widening pool of light,

love with no need to pre-empt grievance…

We can also take inspiration from our lineages. As some of you know, my beloved mother Girija Bhargava died on March 22nd at the age of 86. Raised in a loving family in Mysore, India that struggled financially, she became a PhD research scientist, an unusual accomplishment for a woman of her generation, and built a life filled with family, friends, community, and meaningful work in a country thousands of miles away. It was an extraordinary and exemplary life, one made possible by widening spheres of opportunity in two democracies that, however imperfectly, were moving towards greater inclusion thanks to the work of social movements. Once she became a citizen, my mother never missed an election. But I learned from her that democracy is not only a matter of laws and voting – it depends on a culture of mutual respect, popular rejection of cruelty, demagogues, and bullies, and the crucial but too often invisible work of love and care that weaves us together in inclusive communities.

May we, in this time of trials and tests, meet this moment in history with an affirming flame of love.

I look forward to sharing our work and our thinking with you through this regular President’s Letter in the months to come.

With gratitude,

Deepak Bhargava

JPB Media Highlights

Nonprofit Quarterly: Philanthropy and Social Justice: A Conversation with Deepak Bhargava

Inside Philanthropy: The Time to Invest in Democracy Is Now, Not November

Newsweek: Flickering Light Can Slow Alzheimer's Disease, MIT Scientists Say

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