OUR FUTURE

Dear Colleagues,

We are excited about NCRP’s 10-Year Strategic Framework! We believe you will be, too.

There are pressing challenges facing our society, and philanthropy can and must play a meaningful role in building a fairer, more just and more democratic nation. The recent election results make the next few years incredibly important.

In the near term, we will see concerted efforts to erode our basic human rights and the improvements we’ve made to protect our planet. Decades of social progress may be undone if organized grassroots voices don’t fight against destructive ideas based on hate and exclusion.

Despite these challenges, we believe that we could still see significant progress to advance women’s equality, reform our criminal justice system, combat climate change, expand economic opportunity, secure fair treatment for immigrants and combat structural racism.

America needs philanthropy to step up and be part of the solution.

Over the next 10 years you’ll see NCRP expand its scope to increase the effectiveness and impact of high-net-worth donors who do not give through foundations. We are already seeing the tremendous influence that these wealthy individuals have on issues that affect all of us. It’s important that they, and the various organizations that serve them, have the tools and information they need to give in ways that advance justice and equity.

In the strategic framework, you’ll also see NCRP intentionally connect to movements that are important drivers of progress and social change in our country. Notice how we have restructured our team to be in deep relationship with the nonprofits and funders that are leading the most exciting movements with the biggest potential to improve and strengthen our communities.

NCRP will continue to produce research you can trust and that helps philanthropy improve. We also will continue to critique philanthropic practices that don’t measure up, and praise grantmakers that are practicing smart giving.

We believe NCRP’s new strategic framework will enable us to significantly contribute to shaping a country that truly embodies our core values of equity, democracy and justice for all.

How our nation’s grantmakers and high-net-worth donors deploy their resources, and how they practice the craft of philanthropy makes a tremendous difference. Will we take advantage of the historical moment and help our nation make lasting progress on important issues? Ten years from now, we are hopeful that the answer is “Yes.”

We look forward to working with you as we implement our 10-year strategic framework to ensure that philanthropy contributes in meaningful ways to building the kind of world we all want to see.

Sincerely,

Sherece West-Scantlebury
Former NCRP Board Chair, President and CEO, Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation

Aaron Dorfman
President and CEO
NCRP