National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy

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History

NCRP was founded in 1976 by The Donee Group, a coalition of nonprofit leaders across the nation who recognized that traditional philanthropy was falling short of addressing critical public needs.

The Donee Group encouraged foundations to support nonprofit organizations that monitored institutions of power and those that advocated for change and nurtured innovative solutions to the root causes of societal problems.

More than a quarter century later, the Donee Group's analysis and recommendations gain greater significance as the government and the corporate sector become further removed from the public, as evidenced by the growing role of money in politics, the decline of political parties as the chief vehicles through which public interests are summarized and citizens mobilized, declining levels of public trust in politicians, the media, and corporations, and the continuing devolutionary thrust passing the role of financing, designing and delivering critical social and human services from the federal government to the states to inadequately equipped and already strained nonprofits.

Timeline

1976 – NCRP is founded by the Donee Group, a coalition of nonprofit leaders, to urge philanthropy to serve vital public needs.

1977 – NCRP challenges United Way’s giving strategies, advocating for funding of grassroots social change.

1980 – NCRP’s publication, Foundations and Public Information: Sunshine or Shadow?, encourages foundations to be more financially transparent and accountable.

1981 – NCRP helps establish local committees for responsive philanthropy to increase awareness of community foundation giving practices.

1985 – NCRP assists in hosting the first National Conference of Women’s Funds, from which the Women’s Funding Network was created.

1991 – NCRP initiates a study of community foundations in America’s largest cities, including Denver, Philadelphia, Seattle, Atlanta and Chicago.

1997 – Moving a Public Policy Agenda: The Strategic Philanthropy of Conservative Foundations is published. This groundbreaking research ignites debate and discussion among progressive and mainstream foundations.

1999 – Executive Director Rick Cohen steps in for Robert Bothwell, continuing NCRP’s 23-year legacy as the nation’s only progressive philanthropic watchdog.

2004 – NCRP testifies in front of the Senate Finance Committee on the need for increased public accountability for philanthropy.

Activities

NCRP’s staff monitors philanthropic practices and carefully and systematically researches potential areas for reform that can make a positive, progressive difference for the nonprofit community.

NCRP makes a concerted effort to collaborate with colleagues in the nonprofit world and the media, as well as with local, regional and national policy makers. NCRP’s research filters into policy advocacy for reform of the philanthropic sector.

The organization has long advocated for significantly improving philanthropic accountability and responsiveness. With recommendations for reform, NCRP aims to bring a sense of democratic and fair governance and oversight to the billions of dollars held in the trust of the philanthropic sector.

NCRP’s implementation of its mission as a philanthropic watchdog, promoting philanthropic giving and access for people of the least wealth and least opportunity in our society, is demonstrated in the organization’s focus areas:

Philanthropic Accountability

NCRP’s work in this area achieved significant visibility and impact. Following the Senate Finance Committee hearings in 2004, NCRP issued several high profile statements on foundation accountability. NCRP also designed and helped edit a special issue of The Nonprofit Quarterly devoted to nonprofit accountability issues, which was used by the Senate Finance Committee in its hearings.

Philanthropic Practice

Since NCRP’s founding, it has conducted research and encourage nonprofits to actively promote philanthropic responsiveness to underserved populations and constituencies. NCRP has recently deepened its work on promoting new practices in foundation grantmaking, with the release of Social Justice Philanthropy: Latest Trend or a Lasting Lens for Grantmaking?, which explores how grantmakers apply concepts of social justice to their work. Previous research includes a retrospective examination of the responses of foundations to the South Central disturbances in Los Angeles in 1992, and a collaboration with Montana’s Big Sky Institute analyzing states that were on the short side of the “philanthropic divide.”

Conservative Philanthropy

NCRP continued its series of investigations into the grantmaking activities of conservative foundations, with the 2005 release of Funding the Culture Wars: Philanthropy, Church and State, and again a widely circulated report extensively covered in the philanthropic and mainstream press.

Corporate Philanthropy

NCRP has given substantial attention to the issue of corporate philanthropy. In a 2004 Responsive Philanthropy issue and later in a special report, The Waltons and Wal-Mart: Self-Interested Philanthropy, NCRP conducted an in-depth analysis of the ideological and corporate priorities in the philanthropy of the Walton Family Foundation and the Wal-Mart corporate foundation.

Public Policy

NCRP has a long history of encouraging effective philanthropic giving for public policy advocacy. In 2005, NCRP joined other organizations in protesting the imposition of inappropriate anti-terrorism list-checking requirements on nonprofit participants in the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC), issued a statement concerning foundation misinterpretation of the requirements of the Patriot Act and Executive Order 13224, took the lead in speaking out on federal policies adversely affecting both philanthropy and social justice, took up the issue of both government and nonprofit responses to Hurricane Katrina and Rita, and worked closely with its partners tin the Nonprofit Advocacy Coalition on a variety of issues regarding nonprofit lobbying and free speech rights.

Political Uses and Abuses of Philanthropy

NCRP has maintained its attention to the abuses of charity and philanthropy by members of Congress (and their friends) and published critiques of Tom DeLay, Jack Abramoff and Duke Cunningham. In 2007, NCRP will be pushing the new congress to increase accountability of political foundations and reduce exploitation of tax loopholes.

Educating the Media & Public

NCRP has continued to be extremely visible in the sector due to a top-notch communications operation. NCRP redesigned and relaunched its website, www.ncrp.org, with major improvements in 2005. NCRP’s Responsive Philanthropy quarterly has expanded with articles that get covered in the mainstream press. NCRP’s coverage in mainstream press has been in most major metropolitan newspapers, magazines, and in radio and broadcast appearances. Also, NCRP’s staff are frequent speakers at nonprofit and philanthropic conferences around the nation.

Alternative Funds Assistance

NCRP has helped establish and strengthen progressive funds and federations that raise money in corporate and private sector workplaces. In recent years, NCRP’s program took some new turns, emphasizing more action-research in support of progressive funds and federations in the field.