logo
    • Magazine
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Racial Justice
  • Economic Justice
    • Collections
  • Climate Justice
  • Health Justice
  • Leadership
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Subscribe
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Complimentary Webinars
    • Premium On-Demand Webinars
  • Membership
  • Submissions
  • Home
  • About Tiny Spark
  • Tiny Spark In the News
  • Contact

Winners Give More, But Their Giving Reinforces Elite Power

Amy Costello
September 25, 2018
Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
© Mackenzie Stroh

Tiny Spark kicks off its fall season with a scathing critique of the nation’s elite, who are purporting to solve huge social problems with their businesses, money and power. But former New York Times correspondent Anand Giridharadas tells Costello that when the elite address social problems, they do so in ways that reinforce their dominant position.

“They want to change the world, while keeping it just the same enough to keep themselves on top,” he says. “They want to make a difference, while also retaining the power to make a killing.”

In a far-ranging interview, Giridharadas also urges nonprofit leaders to work for more transformative change, too. “We will be led in the future not by generous givers but by ardent reformers,” Giridharadas says. “There’s a difference between charity and reform, between giving back and reform, between social enterprise and reform…between people who seek to do well and good, and people who seek to reform.”

Giridharadas’s critique is laid out in his new book, Winners Take All, which challenges the widely disseminated notion that you can be rich, hold on to economic power, and solve entrenched social problems at the same time. For example, Giridharadas talks about social change makers who are “willing to talk about investing in cool new technology that would allow people to live forever in Silicon Valley.”

“But,” he says, “they’re not willing to talk about a better healthcare system for all.”

Giridharadas believes the elite’s silence on matters of transformative change reveals “all the things that they’re not willing to talk about, [which] would require them to sacrifice, would require the system atop which they stand to change,” he says. “And they’re not willing to do that.”

Sign up for our free newsletters

Subscribe to NPQ's newsletters to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

In this podcast, Giridharadas also digs into how broken social systems need to change. He makes the case for strong government programs and asks what our moral obligations are when faced with these dominant structures.

“We live in a society in which we’re able to do all the things we can do because there is someone tending the commons,” he says. “Government has been othered and shamed and laughed out of town. What I think it requires of all of us, whether you work in a company or a nonprofit or you’re an activist, is to work to repair the systems that allow us to live a common life.”

Additional Resources

New York Magazine: “Why Philanthropy Is Bad for Democracy”

Slate: “The Cruelty of Our Age of Generosity”

New York Times: “Meet the ‘Change Agents’ Who Are Enabling Inequality”

Aspen Institute Action Forum speech: “The Thriving World, the Wilting World, and You”

Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
About the author
Amy Costello

For four years, Amy was the Africa Correspondent for PRI’s The World. She has also reported for NPR, PBS television, the BBC World Service, and The Guardian. Amy’s television investigation Sudan: The Quick and the Terrible was nominated for an Emmy Award. In 2011, she launched Tiny Spark, which investigates nonprofits, philanthropy and international aid. It was acquired by The Nonprofit Quarterly in 2018.

More about: Featured ContentGivinghigh-wealth donorsmega-donorsTiny SparkTiny Spark Podcast

Become a member

Support independent journalism and knowledge creation for civil society. Become a member of Nonprofit Quarterly.

Members receive unlimited access to our archived and upcoming digital content. NPQ is the leading journal in the nonprofit sector written by social change experts. Gain access to our exclusive library of online courses led by thought leaders and educators providing contextualized information to help nonprofit practitioners make sense of changing conditions and improve infra-structure in their organizations.

Join Today
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

Spring-2023-sidebar-subscribe
You might also like
“Dirty Work”: Uncovering the Mechanisms of Concealment in the World of Work
Amy Costello and Eyal Press
How the Prison-Industrial Complex Undermines Immigrant Rights
Amy Costello and Loren Collingwood
For This Art Curator, the Aesthetic is Political
Amy Costello and Macushla Robinson
Designing for Climate Change—in Time, for Equity
Cyndi Suarez
What Does a Community-Based Approach to Chronic Homelessness Look Like?
Amy Costello and Frederica Boswell
System Error: Stanford Professors Tackle Tech Disruption and Democracy
Amy Costello and Frederica Boswell

NPQ Webinars

April 27th, 2 pm ET

Liberatory Decision-Making

How to Facilitate and Engage in Healthy Decision-making Processes

Register Now
You might also like
Steven_Kane_3
“Dirty Work”: Uncovering the Mechanisms of Concealment...
Amy Costello and Eyal Press
How the Prison-Industrial Complex Undermines Immigrant...
Amy Costello and Loren Collingwood
For This Art Curator, the Aesthetic is Political
Amy Costello and Macushla Robinson

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

See our newsletters

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

NPQ-Spring-2023-cover

Independent & in your mailbox.

Subscribe today and get a full year of NPQ for just $59.

subscribe
  • About
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • Copyright
  • Careers

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.