As longtime progressive movement organizer Deepak Bhargava takes the reins of the multi-billion-dollar JPB Foundation, he is unveiling an ambitious plan to give big to democracy strengthening efforts.
The New York City-based foundation, which says it has assets of about $4.2 billion, announced it will increase grantmaking this year by 20% to about $510 million. JPB’s focus will be on supporting groups that increase the political sway of people of color, LGBTQ people, and workers; fighting online misinformation; and making grants to faith-based institutions and other groups that work to get people with different backgrounds and beliefs to find common ground.
Coming from Bhargava, the changes are not a surprise. Unlike other large foundation presidents who are often leaders in academia, Bhargava’s activist background makes him a different choice. To help in his movement-building efforts, he has recruited a cast of progressive stars including: Daniel Altschuler, former co-executive director of Make the Road Action; Alicia Garza, a co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement; and Arianna Jimenez, who has held leadership roles at the Service Employees International Union and the California Democratic Party.
Under founder Barbara Picower, whom Bhargava replaced as president, JPB concentrated its grant making in three areas: reducing poverty, protecting the environment, and supporting medical breakthroughs.
Picower was married to the late investor Jeffry Picower, who got embroiled in the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme scandal. The foundation was created using Picower’s wealth after she agreed to pay more than $7 billion to victims of the scheme. She is now president emerita and remains chair of the foundation’s board.
The foundation’s new grantmaking programs are: Democracy, Gender, and Racial Justice; Community and Worker Power; Movement Infrastructure and Explorations; Faith, Bridging, and Belonging; and Reproductive Justice, Medical Research, and NYC Community Grants.
The changes signal a shift toward grants that build power for those who have been denied it on the basis of race, class, or gender, Bhagarva said.
“Supporting grassroots organizing and movement building will be an even more prominent feature of our approach in the next chapter,” he said. “The underlying issue underneath all the problems we face, from housing to health care to climate injustice, is really an imbalance in power.”
Current grantees embodying that approach, said Bhargava,…
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