Dear John, During the past few years, the Chronicle of Philanthropy has expanded its opinion section to bring you diverse new voices and insights on a broader range of issues. We are developing a dynamic civic commons where different perspectives are shared, debated, and valued. This effort includes the addition of regular columnists who will bring fresh and provocative ideas to our coverage. Today we are introducing one of them — Eboo Patel, founder and president of Interfaith America. Eboo is a veteran of efforts to build diverse coalitions across religious, racial, economic, and political divides. As Eboo discusses in his introductory column, the link between diverse perspectives and better philanthropy is itself worth exploring. “Diversity work,” in his view, “should mostly focus on cooperation across difference, not the effects of power, privilege, and oppression.” The social-change arena, Eboo believes, increasingly devotes too much time and too many resources to critique and not enough to constructing something better. “My basic approach to social change is that we defeat the things we do not love by building the things we do,” he writes. In his column, Eboo pledges to bring Chronicle readers examples of solutions pioneered by nonprofits that are making a difference.
Look for more from Eboo in the weeks ahead. And watch this space as we continue to introduce new columnists and innovative perspectives. Please reach out to me or our new Deputy Opinion Editor, Nandita Raghuram, at opinions@philanthropy.com if you are interested in contributing guest essays. If you like our opinion columns — as well as our news reporting, advice, and analysis — we hope you’ll consider subscribing so you have unlimited access to everything we publish. You can sign up now. And thank you for all you do to make the sector stronger. Amy Saltzman, Opinion Editor |
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