Activist to foundation leader: JPB’s Deepak Bhargava to deliver ‘lightning bolt’ to philanthropy

As former progressive movement organizer Deepak Bhargava takes charge of the multibillion-dollar JPB Foundation, he unveils an ambitious plan to make major efforts to strengthen democracy.

The New York City-based foundation, which says it has assets of about $4.2 billion, announced it will increase grantmaking by 20% this year to about $510 million. JPB’s focus will be on supporting groups that increase the political influence of people of color, LGBTQ people and workers; combating online disinformation; and providing grants to faith-based institutions and other groups committed to helping people of diverse backgrounds and beliefs find common ground.

Being from Bhargava, the changes are not a surprise. Unlike other major foundation presidents, who are often leaders in academia, Bhargava’s activist background makes him a different choice. To aid 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, co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement; and Arianna Jimenez, who has held leadership positions with the Service Employees International Union and the California Democratic Party.

Under founder Barbara Picower, who was replaced as president by Bhargava, JPB focused its grantmaking on three areas: reducing poverty, protecting the environment and supporting medical breakthroughs.

Picower was married to the late investor Jeffry Picower, who became embroiled in the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scandal. The foundation was created using Picower’s wealth after she agreed to pay more than $7 billion to the scheme’s victims. She is now president emerita and remains chairman of the foundation board.

The foundation’s new grant 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 community grants in NYC.

The changes signal a shift toward subsidies that build power for those who have been denied power based on 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 underlying all the issues we face, from housing to health care to climate injustice, is really a balance of power.”

Current grantees embodying this approach, Bhargava said, include the community organizing groups People’s Action and the Center for Popular Democracy and the worker nonprofit Jobs for Justice.

Bhargava said grants to support policy research or service delivery are likely to be reduced.

“You’ll probably see some scaling back there,” he said.

Bhargava, a lecturer at the City University of New York’s School of Labor and Urban Studies, previously served as president of Community Change, a grassroots group that supports organizations in low-income areas with high shares of people of color. But he is no stranger to philanthropy. He was previously a member of the board of the JPB and Open Society foundations.

Under Picower, JPB was active in progressive philanthropy and regularly participated in joint funds with the Ford, Hewlett, and Kellogg foundations. But JPB didn’t seek the spotlight, says Gara LaMarche, former president of Democracy Alliance, a network of liberal political donors, and former president of Atlantic Philanthropies.

LaMarche, who has worked regularly with Bhargava, said JPB is ready to become a more muscular and vocal leader of social change. Typically, foundations of JPB’s size choose a former university leader as president, LaMarche said, citing the Hewlett Foundation and Carnegie Corporation as examples. In Bhargava, JPB has an organizer and public intellectual who is used to beating the drum louder to draw more attention to grantmaking, LaMarche says.

The changes under Bhargava, LaMarche said, “will be a huge infusion of money, brainpower and strategic thinking.”

Appointing Bhargava as leader of JPB was like a “bolt of lightning,” striking philanthropy, said Patrick Gaspard, president of the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank. Gaspard, who previously chaired the Open Society Foundations, said Bhargava’s years as an activist will help him bring an “obsessive-compulsive” and “relentless” focus on raising the foundation’s profile as an agent of change.

Bhargava sees the foundation taking on a public leadership role.

“Philanthropy must be part of the chorus of voices speaking out about how essential multiracial democracy and its institutions and practices are,” he said.

The foundation’s grant budget is expected to be about $510 million this year, compared to $359 million in 2022, when assets totaled about $2.9 billion. The more than $1 billion in profits from the foundation’s assets has allowed it to increase its grant budget.

But with an expected payout that could be close to 12%, JPB will still more than double the federal requirement of 5% that private foundations must distribute to charities each year. The higher payout allows JPB to punch above its weight and have the grant impact of a much larger foundation. In 2022, for example, the $8.3 billion David and Lucille Packard Foundation made grants totaling $432 million, far less than JPB plans to make this year.

Progressive philanthropy has been criticized for supporting movement-building efforts that are nonpartisan but could ultimately influence elections. To some, pouring private dollars into nonprofits that mobilize voters and build movements seems like an end goal to circumvent laws that limit the ability of tax-exempt organizations to get involved in politics.

Michael Hartmann, a senior fellow at the Capital Research Center, a conservative philanthropy think tank, says he “gets skittish” when he hears about progressive foundations championing the funding of their democracy.

“When people hear progressive foundations say they want to help ‘small’ democracy, there is a legitimate concern that in reality they will only boost the prospects of ‘big D’ Democrats,” said Hartmann, who was not familiar with the plans of the JPB Foundation.

Still, Hartmann said there is a need for foundations across ideologies to support connecting people to each other and to the social institutions that can create a more stable, representative democracy.

Gaspard of the Center for American Progress applauded JPB’s focus on movement building, saying that when people lose faith in their institutions and feel powerless to shape their world, those institutions become susceptible to attacks by demagogues.

“You can only be a full-fledged defender of our democratic institutions if you believe that they bring some degree of benefit to your life and well-being,” he said.

Bhargava said he thinks JPB’s work-building moves will have a longer-lasting impact than the results of a single election.

While the strategy has not yet been finalized, the new faith and bridge-building efforts, Bhargava said, will include current grantees the Heartland Fund, which supports advocacy in rural areas, and the Metro Industrial Areas Foundation, a network of faith communities. and community organizations.

Bhargava said the effort will work to bring together people who disagree on many substantive issues but share the common belief that the nation is best served by strengthening multiracial democracy.

“Defending democracy requires a big tent,” he said.

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Alex Daniels is a senior reporter at the Chronicle of Philanthropy, where you can read the full article. This article was provided to The Associated Press by the Chronicle of Philanthropy as part of a philanthropy and nonprofit partnership supported by the Lilly Endowment. The Chronicle is solely responsible for the content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.