Building on the research-focused articles from philanthropy unfiltered, these reading lists offer an excellent way to explore topics more thoroughly and move beyond a single essay. Each list compiles influential texts that relate to the essay’s ideas and includes additional readings to deepen your understanding of social justice efforts within the nonprofit industrial complex.
This list complements my Substack article, “The Master's Tools: How Traditional Grantmaking Blocks Liberation,” in which I critique the contradiction of communities relying on the same tools that sustain their oppression to attain freedom and explore more liberatory approaches to grantmaking. Liberatory philanthropy begins with the premise that those closest to the problem are also closest to the solution.
These readings expand the article’s references, tracing how tax policy and private wealth laid the foundations we know, how funding has redirected movements away from their original demands, and how communities have financed their own survival without waiting for permission from institutions. They also offer tools for funders seeking to redistribute decision-making power. I hope these sources inspire you to consider the possibilities that arise when grantmaking strategies prioritize true liberation.
brown, a. m. (2017). Emergent strategy: Shaping change, changing worlds. AK Press.
An approach to change grounded in relationships and adaptation, offering funders a practical alternative to planning models that leave no room for changing conditions.
INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence (Ed.). (2017). The revolution will not be funded: Beyond the non-profit industrial complex. Duke University Press.
This is the fundamental critique of the nonprofit industrial complex, including a comprehensive account of the Ford Foundation's defunding as presented in this essay.
Kaba, M. (2021). We do this ‘til we free us: Abolitionist organizing and transforming justice (T. K. Nopper, Ed.). Haymarket Books.
Essays and interviews on abolitionist organizing and transformative justice, valuable for funders interested in adopting governance structures centered on community, accountability, transparency about rejection reasons, and ongoing support, even when a grantee’s work faces political challenges.
Lorde, A. (1984). Sister outsider: Essays and speeches. Crossing Press.
A collection of essays and speeches on race, class, and difference, useful for funders evaluating whether their community engagement initiatives genuinely transfer authority or whether decision-making remains unchanged.
Menakem, R. (2017). My grandmother’s hands: Racialized trauma and the pathway to mending our hearts and bodies. Central Recovery Press.
This examines how racialized trauma embeds in the body and is transmitted across generations, offering practices for addressing it. This is useful for funders to consider when assessing the costs associated with their application cycles and the reporting requirements for those involved.
Spade, D. (2020). Mutual aid: Building solidarity during this crisis (and the next). Verso Books.
A guide to organizing survival efforts through horizontal groups, focusing on decision-making, conflict resolution, and burnout prevention. It’s helpful for funders seeking to support groups that lack nonprofit status and do not meet typical eligibility criteria.
Ahn, C. (2007). Democratizing American philanthropy. In INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence (Ed.), The revolution will not be funded: Beyond the non-profit industrial complex. South End Press.
A historical overview of how tax laws and wealth accumulation shaped the development of the American foundation, including suggestions for higher payout requirements and greater public oversight. This overview is helpful for funders evaluating the origins and ongoing protection of their endowments.
Francis, M. M. (2019). The price of civil rights: Black lives, white funding, and movement capture. Law & Society Review, 53(1), 275–309. https://doi.org/10.1111/lasr.12384
An archival study examining how white philanthropic funding shifted the NAACP’s focus from anti-lynching efforts to education litigation, offering insight for funders tracking how their priorities shape grantees’ work.
Kivel, P. (2007). Social service or social change? In INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence (Ed.), The revolution will not be funded: Beyond the non-profit industrial complex. South End Press.
A chapter that explains how nonprofits are often structured to address the effects of inequality rather than its root causes, helping funders evaluate whether their grants support reactive or proactive efforts.
Kohl-Arenas, E. (2015). The self-help myth: How philanthropy fails to alleviate poverty. University of California Press.
This ethnography of farmworker organizing in California’s Central Valley traces how foundation funding shifted from confronting growers and labor issues to programs centered on individual responsibility. This shift helps funders assess whether their strategies target the root causes of poverty or simply ask impoverished people to fix the problems themselves.
Ostrander, S. A. (2007). The growth of donor control: Revisiting the social relations of philanthropy. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 36(2), 356–372.
A research article examining how donors have gained more direct control over their donations, helping funders assess whether their practices have shifted authority toward or away from communities.
Rodríguez, D. (2007). The political logic of the non-profit industrial complex. In INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence (Ed.), The revolution will not be funded: Beyond the non-profit industrial complex. South End Press.
The specific chapter that defines the nonprofit industrial complex and argues that it absorbs radical movements into structures controlled by the state and private wealth, helping funders understand what their grantmaking supports and what it unknowingly restricts.
Arnove, R. F. (Ed.). (1980). Philanthropy and cultural imperialism: The foundations at home and abroad. G. K. Hall.
This collection of case studies examines how Carnegie, Ford, and Rockefeller shaped education, research, and public policy in the U.S. and internationally. It is valuable for funders seeking to track how early strategies from their field spread a single development model and displaced alternative approaches.
Giridharadas, A. (2018). Winners take all: The elite charade of changing the world. Alfred A. Knopf.
This book highlights how elite-led social change, driven by philanthropy, directs reform efforts toward solutions that do not jeopardize their wealth. It helps funders determine whether their grantmaking practices are effectively addressing inequality or merely creating the illusion of doing so.
McGoey, L. (2016). No such thing as a free gift: The Gates Foundation and the price of philanthropy. Verso.
A case study of the Gates Foundation’s influence on global health and agricultural policy, tracing how its funding shapes decisions at the World Health Organization and beyond, useful for funders seeking to hold the Foundation accountable for the agendas its money sets.
Nickel, P. M., & Eikenberry, A. M. (2009). A critique of the discourse of marketized philanthropy. American Behavioral Scientist, 52(7), 974–989.
A research article examining how business language, such as return on investment, scale, and impact, has reshaped the way giving is discussed and evaluated, useful for funders considering what gets excluded when social change must be described as a product with measurable returns.
Reich, R. (2018). Just giving: Why philanthropy is failing democracy and how it can do better. Princeton University Press.
A political theorist analyzes how tax subsidies and legal protections allow foundations to operate indefinitely with minimal public oversight, helping funders assess whether their independence from public accountability is beneficial or problematic.
Roelofs, J. (2003). Foundations and public policy: The mask of pluralism. State University of New York Press.
A political analysis of how foundation funding professionalizes movement work, making it more acceptable to institutions. This helps funders evaluate grantees’ current outputs against their previous organizing efforts before funding.
Mutual Aid Disaster Relief. (n.d.). https://mutualaiddisasterrelief.org
Free organizing guides and training materials for managing mutual aid efforts through decentralized, volunteer-led initiatives. These resources help funders understand how survival work is coordinated in the absence of a formal staffing structure.
Movement Generation Justice & Ecology Project. (n.d.). From banks and tanks to cooperation and caring: A strategic framework for a just transition. https://movementgeneration.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/JT_booklet_Eng_printspreads.pdf
A framework designed to transition economies from reliance on extraction to community-led governance and shared ownership, offering funders insights from organizers rather than from grantmakers.
Sitrin, M., & Colectiva Sembrar (Eds.). (2020). Pandemic solidarity: Mutual aid during the Covid-19 crisis. Pluto Press.
Firsthand accounts from mutual aid groups across 15 countries during the early pandemic highlight that communities provided food, medicine, and housing support more quickly than traditional funders.
Akuno, K., & Nangwaya, A. (Eds.). (2017). Jackson rising: The struggle for economic democracy and Black self-determination in Jackson, Mississippi. Daraja Press.
This outlines Cooperation Jackson’s initiatives to develop worker cooperatives, community land trusts, and a democratic city government in Jackson, Mississippi. It serves as a valuable resource for funders evaluating the requirements of long-term investments in community ownership and contrasting them with the limitations of a typical grant duration.
Hossein, C. S. (2017). The Black social economy in the Americas: Exploring diverse community-based markets. Palgrave Macmillan.
Research on rotating savings clubs, cooperative banking, and informal lending systems developed by Black communities across the Americas after being marginalized from formal financial options. This research is valuable for funders seeking to channel capital into community-led practices.
Nembhard, J. G. (2014). Collective courage: A history of African American cooperative economic thought and practice. Pennsylvania State University Press.
A history of Black cooperative businesses, credit unions, and mutual aid efforts from the 1800s onward, often established under threat of violence. Useful for funders seeking to develop strategies grounded in cooperative ownership, democratic governance, and a tradition of Black economic self-determination that predates institutional philanthropy.
Gibson, C. (2018). Deciding together: Shifting power and resources through participatory grantmaking. GrantCraft, Candid. 10.15868/socialsector.32988
A free guide, created with input from participatory grantmakers worldwide, explains why and how funders delegate funding decisions to the communities they serve, sharing challenges, lessons learned, and best practices. This resource is useful for funders seeking to involve communities in grantmaking.
National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy. (2018). Power moves: Your essential philanthropy assessment guide for equity and justice. https://ncrp.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Power-Moves-Philanthropy.pdf
This self-assessment tool evaluates whether a foundation strengthens community power, shares authority with grantees, and uses its influence to advance justice. It’s useful for funders focused on questions of authority and power.
Villanueva, E. (2021). Decolonizing wealth: Indigenous wisdom to heal divides and restore balance (2nd ed.). Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
This argument suggests that philanthropy follows the logic of colonization and separation. It outlines seven steps toward reparative giving, helping funders reflect on how their endowments were formed and what giving back that wealth entails.
Wrobel, B., & Massey, M. (2021). Letting go: How philanthropists and impact investors can do more good by giving up control. Massey & Wrobel.
Case studies of donors and investors who have delegated decision-making authority to the communities or individuals their funds support. These serve as useful examples for funders seeking to understand what ceding control entails in practice and the potential costs to institutions that adopt this approach.
A giving community within the Decolonizing Wealth Project that moves unrestricted funds to Indigenous and Black-led work.
A Just Transition guide from Justice Funders for philanthropic institutions, organized around redistributing wealth, democratizing power, and shifting economic control. It includes strategic questions to help institutions move toward more restorative practices and stories of funders acting in solidarity.
A community group for individuals ages 18 to 35 with wealth and social privilege, focused on redistributing the resources they control and guided by the communities most affected by injustice.
Trust-Based Philanthropy Project
A funder-to-funder initiative to make equitable grantmaking and community accountability standard practice. It provides tools and peer networks to help institutions shift from a donor-centric to a community-centric approach, supporting funders in re-evaluating their grantmaking practices and addressing underlying power imbalances.
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